A disturbingly comedic (or comically disturbing?) satire of the inevitability of war, the age old fate vs. free will argument, and the gross desensitization of death, Slaughterhouse-Five analyzes the effects of the Bombing of Dresden on World War II veteran Billy Pilgrim. Told in a nonlinear narrative that is common for Vonnegut, this novel employs the rare literary device I like to call "Twilight Zone-ish extraterrestrialism," which serves to highlight both the absurdity of free will as well as Pilgrim's sense of temporal confusion resulting from his experiences with war. So it goes.