How Did Billy Pilgrim Lose His Optimism?

SlaughterHouse-Five is a book about a man named Billy Pilgrim who is stuck in time, and constantly travels throughout different events in his life. Billy accepts different values and sees traumatic and morbid events differently than others. Billy accepts a way of life that is not perceivable to other humans. Many would argue that Billy’s experiences make him insane, but Billy’s experiences with the Tralfamadorians actually allows him to preserve his sanity, and stay a very intelligent man.

He then realizes that he does not know his family very well. This shows that his family is not perfectly happy or close. In Billy's life there is a superficial side of things, the people he socializes with are not truly his friends. They all are impressed with appearances, and how they appear to others. Billy seems like he is living the American dream when in reality he has gone through

A reason for Billy being so unattached would be PTSD. PTSD leaves people feeling alone and depressed. He is having flashbacks of parts of his life and at the end of the book he is reliving his moments during the war.

This sets the reader up to feel quite negatively about the rest of the poem, namely its subject, Billy.

Mrs.Bibbit, Billy’s mother, and friends with Nurse Ratched, is another authoritative figure in the novel. Mrs. Bibbit gains her power by preventing Billy, from becoming an adult. At first Mrs. Bibbit does realize that Billy is an adult and is able to function in society, When his mother tells him he has plenty of time to accomplish things such as going to college, and Billy reminds his mother that he is thirty-one years old, she replies, "'Sweetheart, do I look like the mother of a middle-aged man?'" (Kesey 247). This shows that Billy’s mom does not seem to understand that Billy is an adult that is able to live in the outside world. This Results in him feeling Insecure and he chooses to remain in the ward. “Sure! It’s Billy, turned from the screen... If I had the guts.” (168). This takes place after McMurphy realizes that the men are there voluntary, Billy explains to McMurphy that he could leave at any time if he wanted to but he believes he doesn’t have the guts to go out in society. Unfortunately in the end it is just the fear of his own mother, and Nurse Ratched’s manipulative ways that causes him to take his own life. Another family member who manipulates her "loved one" is Vera Harding, whose control over her husband is similar to that of Billy and his mother.

Billy’s mother often enjoys being with her 30 year old son, sometimes treating him as if he is still a child. This is displayed when Billy’s mother takes him out after work to lie on the grass and tease his hair. Billy tells her about his dream to go to college and find a wife. However, upon hearing this, she “laugh[s] at such foolishness” (295). Billy exclaims that he’s 30 years old already only to receive the response, “‘Sweet-heart, do I look like the mother of a middle-aged man?’” (295). Billy’s mother treats him like a baby and emasculates him to the point where he is unable to grow. This causes Billy to be constantly scared, uncertain, and compliant with the Nurse and any other women of authority. Only after his night with Candy does he seem to act more confident and not respond much to Nurse Ratched’s shaming (314). Nonetheless, his confidence doesn’t last long after the Nurse threatens him to tell his mother in which he is then seen to be begging for her mercy. This scene shows how the the women of the ward uses the men’s insecurities to weaken them and force them to act a certain way, as shown by

While we think Billy's breakdown probably has a little something to do with the war, we do agree that this scene represents pretty much everything that's wrong with Billy's life in miniature. Billy had no choice about being tossed into the pool and he has no choice about being saved from it much like he has no choice but to go fight in the Battle of the

Billy has lost a sense of love as death has faced him in the eyes once too many. Billy deals with his pain by turning to alcohol abuse, he cannot deal with his mourning, "Sometimes it's not as if they have died so much as that I myself have died and become a ghost." (43). From Dolores and Billy, the central theme is slowly revealed.

After Billy comes out publicly with his story of the Tralfamadorians, she says to him, “…what are we going to do with you? Are you going to force us to put you where your mother is?” (Vonnegut 63), referring to the “old people’s home” in Billy’s home town. The threatening tone in which Barbara asks this question gives the idea that she has dealt with her father’s instability before and has the idea that, somehow, he can control it. Billy, however, feels powerless over his life, “Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future” (Vonnegut 121). This quote, stated directly after the serenity prayer, shows that Billy has been changed deeply by his past in the war and, as a result, feels as though he cannot influence his future with his own actions. His internal excuse for this is shown through his story of the Tralfamadorians. Barbara Pilgrim is unable to understand her father’s mental state because she has never been to war and doesn’t realize how it changes people

For example, after discovering that Billy has had sexual intercourse with Candy, Nurse Ratched shames him for doing so. When her reprimanding receives little reaction from the still drowsy patient, the Nurse then says, “‘What worries me Billy...is how your poor mother is going to take this.’... Billy flinched and put his hand to his cheek like he’d been burned with acid”(314). At the mention of his mother, Billy immediately becomes alert and anxious and his stutter returns. The thought of his mother’s disapproval is so emotionally and physically distressing that Billy chooses to kill himself, rather than confront her.

He never intends to for see the future, but he does with his time-tripping. Another apposing factor that occurs is when Billy reveals in a radio talk show that he had been kidnapped by aliens. Society (including his daughter) thought he was mentally ill. His daughter did not know what to do with him. The novel Slaughterhouse Five shows how Billy has been faced with conflict generated by society creating apposing factors.

Rosewater and Billy both went through two very similar things together, which was going through the trauma of war and they both had to lose a parent, though one lost a mom and the other lost

When he tells Billy that he needs to figure it out and snap out of it, Billy says, “ You guys go on without me. I’m all right” (Vonnegut 47). This just displays the hopelessness in Billy’s life. The war has driven him to lose touch with himself and not value his own life. This makes it very easy for a reader to feel empathy for Billy and get an idea of how war can really affect these men. Billy isn’t the only character that Vonnegut uses to depict the terrors of war.

Billy experiences intrusive thoughts, flashbacks and emotional distress after the event occurred which we see throughout the events of the film.

This quote points strongly towards the overall mindset and lifestyle of Billy. Even though the man may be poor, he does not have to be soured. Faith may be the only thing that he owns and so that is how Billy lives. He lives a simple life at which he is honest and does not seek trouble, but rather to make peace. Poverty is Billy’s only mindset and with this he knows that the majority of “valued” possessions are nothing. The only need is to survive and to keep hope. Hope can be seen as having faith towards a certain outcome, therefore, Billy knows