Spiegelman and Vonnegut

The story telling of Art Spiegelman in Maus shares a multitude of similarities and differences with the style of story telling Kurt Vonnegut uses in Slaughterhouse 5. One of the most glaring similarities between the authors is how they jump around in time while telling the story. Vonnegut does this to his main character, Billy Pilgrim by a time travel device given to him by space aliens while Spiegelman uses the father’s story telling in the present about the past to jump around in time. The biggest difference between the two is how they decided to write their stories.  Vonnegut chose to write a satirical science-fiction semi-autobiographical like novel while Spiegelman decided to write a graphic novel. Personally, I prefer Vonnegut to Spiegelman because I have a darker sense of humor. The way he uses the phrase “and so it goes”’ after describing something terrible is humorous to myself. In my opinion it’s his way of shrugging these horrid acts off as just something humans do. I find it humorously similar to how Kel from the 90’s television show Keenan and Kel ended every show with “awww it goes”. Another reason I enjoy Vonnegut’s work in Slaughterhouse 5 is how he deals with free will as well as illogicalness in human nature while we search for life’s meaning. I also liked how the book is an anti-war novel but he acknowledges in the beginning that writing an anti-war book is similar to writing an anti-glacier book because both are unstoppable. Spiegelman’s book is really a work as well but it is definitely more reality based. Vonnegut’s book is definitely tripper and out there which is another reason why I prefer Vonnegut to Spiegelman. In conclusion, Spiegelman and Vonnegut have many similarities and differences in their books but both are literary works of art.