Without a doubt, war is an experience that can define a person, for better or worse. In the case of author Kurt Vonnegut, his experiences in World War II greatly influenced his writing. Most of his works in his long bibliography of novels, articles, short stories and plays have some sort of reference or allusion to war or other world conflicts. Kurt Vonnegut uses his novels Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five to preach against war by stringing together loose and whimsical plots in a satirical and melancholy manner. Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, ironically on Veteran's Day, 1922. He studied at Cornell University until his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. While in the Army as an advanced infantry scout, he “was captured by the German Army during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944” (“Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.,” 2). His time as a prisoner of war had a major influence on his life and writing. Many of his characters would have had experiences similar to his. During his time in Dresden prison, he, unlike many others, survived “the Allied bombing raids that destroyed that architectural treasure and killed between 70,000 and 180,000 civilians” (“Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.”, 20). Regarding the infamous failed bombing, Vonnegut said that "'only one person benefited,' he recalls today. 'And that was me. I got five dollars for every man, woman and child killed.'" ("Kurt Vonnegut, Jr .”, 2).His experience in Dresden during the fire bombing inspired his novel Slaughterhouse-Five which catapulted him into literary fame. During the 1960s Kurt Vonnegut emerged as one of the most influential and provocative writers of fiction in America" ​​(Westbrook, 1). One of the most overanalyzed...... middle of paper...... , is the dwarf son of a very influential American scientist who worked on the creation of the atomic bomb . Vonnegut cleverly names the character Newton in obvious reference to the famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton. Vonnegut connects Newt to science even further: Newton's deformed body may appear to be the biological result of some nuclear irradiation... but it is rather the product of worry. of his father for the invention of atomic weapons and inattention to his children. Newton's small body, which invites verbal abuse from his peers, comes from his own family. Science fiction of the same period sees the birth of robot-boys depicted as bizarre and therefore alienated even by their producers... Vonnegut's Newton is a human character who is transformed into the equivalent of a scientific invention through the writer's narratology. (Fumika, 2)