Vonnegut's Dichotomy

     Critics of Kurt Vonnegut’s are unable to agree on what the main theme of his novel Slaughterhouse Five may be. Although Vonnegut’s novels are satirical, ironical, and extremely wise, they have almost no plot structure, so it is hard to find a constant theme. From the many people that the main character Billy Pilgrim meets, and the places that he takes us, readers are able to discern that Vonnegut is trying to send the message that there will always be death, there will always be war, and humans have no control over their own lives.

… Disorientation and confusion“ ("Trauma/PTSD"). Vonnegut writes, in one of the very first chapters, “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day” (Vonnegut 23). Throughout the book we are taken on a spastic and wild journey from one moment in Pilgrim’s life to another. For instance, Pilgrim is walking through the horribly cold, bleak and depressing German landscape with “The Three Musketeers” and ends up being dragged by Weary most of the way. As soon as the two scouts ditch him and Weary and it seems their ordeal couldn’t get any worse, Pilgrim “time travels” to a moment in which he has just won the Presidency of The Lion’s Club and proceeds to gives an impressive speech. (Vonnegut 48-50). This sort of behavior, completely dissociating oneself from the horrible situation at hand, is typical of PTSD. Pilgrim wanted to escape completely from the cold and depressing “hell” he was in and be back in happiness, where he had just won a successful campaign for the Presidency of his club. This is what happens throughout the book and it is simply another example of Pilgrim’s widespread and horribly debilitating case of PTSD.

The Tralfamadorians, who explain this nature of time and existence to Billy, are shown as enlightened creatures while the humans back on earth are seen as backwards -- to such an extent that they believe in free will. Billy towards the end of his life becomes a preacher of these virtues of existence taught to him by his zookeepers on Tralfamadore, going around and speaking about his experiences and his acquired knowledge. This is ironic, because he is attempting to reverse the steady path of life, even time itself.

The reason, behind the readers of Slaughterhouse-five, believing that Billy had become “unstuck in time” was simply the way he moved back and fourth in time. But as the reader reads on, Billy’s illusions become stranger. For example he believes that he is taken the night of his daughters wedding to a different planet with the Tralfamadorians. It all begins for this part of time travelling when he could not

Billy Pilgrim's life is far from normal. Throughout most of his adult life he has been moving backwards and forwards through time, from one event to another, in a non-sequential order. At least, this schizophrenic life is hard to understand. Because Vonnegut wants the reader to relate to Billy

During the war, Billy’s experience as a chaplain is horrid as they are “a figure of fun in the American Army” (Vonnegut), and he has no friends. Despite being out of place as a Chaplain, Billy is still there. It can only be described as fate that Billy is still there because, without a doubt, he would not be in that depressing situation if he had any real choice. Later, during Billy’s time spent in war, enemies “take him captive as a prisoner of war—an act that places him in the underground barracks and ostensibly saves his life yet again” (Lupack). Billy is saved by fate, but at the same time loses his free will. While he is in the prison, a prison guard responds to Billy’s whining by saying, "Vy you? Vy anybody?" (Vonnegut). This response reaffirmed Billy’s position being all based on fate. There wasn’t much he could do to prevent his capture from the enemy. Moreover, one of the effects of war in Slaughterhouse-Five is that “people are discouraged from being characters” (Vonnegut). This is because, in the book, war is turned into “a controlling system” (Babaee). It goes to show as Billy is involved in several war experiences, such as being “held in an underground shelter (slaughterhouse number five) when it was firebombed” (Haney) or where he has no control. Things that happen to him in war are based solely off of

Many people returned from World War II with disturbing images forever stuck in their heads. Others returned and went crazy due to the many hardships and terrors faced. The protagonist in Slaughter-House Five, Billy Pilgrim, has to deal with some of these things along with many other complications in his life. Slaughter House Five (1968), by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is an anti-war novel about a man’s life before, after and during the time he spent fighting in World War II. While Billy is trying to escape from behind enemy lines, he is captured and imprisoned in a German slaughterhouse. The author tells of Billy’s terrible experiences there. After the war, Billy marries and goes to school to

“Fate is a misconception, it's only a cover-up for the fact you don't have control over your own life.” –Anonymous. In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-five, an optometrist named Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time uncontrollably and constantly travels between his past, present, and future. Since Pilgrim is unable to control his time warps, he is forced to re-live agonizing moments such as watching his wartime friend Edgar Derby executed for stealing or going through the Dresden bombing repeatedly. However, he is also able to visit pleasant moments like speaking as president in front of the Lions club or his honeymoon with his wife, Valencia. Vonnegut’s use of repetition and vision of war, time and death are crucial to Pilgrim as he

While reading the story, the reader knows what is happening, and has a clue as to what is going to happen next. When Billy sees the “BED AND BREAKFAST” sign light up, the reader knows that, even if it is through some turn of events, Billy will make his way to the bed and breakfast. When the lady leaves Billy to go unpack his things, the reader thinks that something may happen, but nothing does. When he goes downstairs and talks to the lady, the reader may think something is going to happen to Billy. Instead, he just chats with the lady while drinking the tea she gives

War is a tragic experience that can motivate people to do many things. Many people have been inspired to write stories, poems, or songs about war. Many of these examples tend to reflect feelings against war. Kurt Vonnegut is no different and his experience with war inspired him to write a series of novels starting with Slaughter-House Five. It is a unique novel expressing Vonnegut's feelings about war. These strong feeling can be seen in the similarities between characters, information about the Tralfamadorians, dark humor, and the structure of the novel.

However, Vonnegut asserts that although God may not exist, free will may not exist either. In Slaughterhouse-Five, he summarizes his opinions with the comment; "among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future (SF 60)." According to the Tralfamadorians, time is constant, and not dynamic. To them, "all moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist„.they can see how permanent all the moments are (SF 27)." Because of this, the decisions we make are not due to free will; instead, they occur because "everybody has to do exactly what he does (SF 198)." In Cat’s Cradle, Jonah, the main character, does not travel through time as Billy Pilgrim does, yet he is able to come to the same realization that time is more like a static stretch of mountains than a flowing river. However, unlike Billy, Jonah must discover this without the help of the Tralfamadorians. When Jonah experiences "a Bokononist vision of the unity in every second of all time and all wandering mankind (CC 67)," he is finally able to understand how all of time is connected.

The effects of war on Billy represent the effects war has on humanity, which warp the mind and ruin the person. The debate of war is present in the novel in Vonnegut’s word choice, depicting the often unnecessary

While never a defeatist, Billy merely flows through his disjointed life without much heed to the event at hand. Billy realizes that he holds the power to create his own happiness and satisfaction out of life through appreciation of the present moment rather than contemplate the occurrence of past and future. Vonnegut develops Billy Pilgrim as a unique protagonist as a means of forcing the reader to question the application of free will upon society and gain a new perspective on the beauty of the present.

Billy is considered to be the personification of the idea of free will being an illusion. This theme and characteristic of Billy Pilgrim is relatable to the first line of the Serenity Prayer, “grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” Billy takes this suggestion to the extreme by accepting everything as within the realm of “things I cannot change.” One

They teach Billy that there is no free will and everything in time has already happened, making fate the deciding factor in your life. This is