What Is Meant By Free Will

Since the first time Billy claimed to have come unstuck in time while in the forest leaning against a tree, he has depended on an alternate reality in which he has created a new life for himself to avoid thoughts of the horrific events he witnessed while in Dresden. Although Billy claims that he was abducted by the Tralfamadorians, in reality, he was captured by the Germans. The reason that the Tralfamadorians exist is so that Billy can escape from the harsh reality of being a prisoner of war. Although separate in Billy’s conscience, the Nazis and the Tralfamadorians are interchangeable. Billy’s adventures on Tralfamadore all have significant and undeniable connections to his life:

Whether we have free will is widely controversial. The absence of a universal definition poses a primary problem to this question. In this essay, I shall base my argument on a set of three conditions for free will: 1) that the actor is unconstraint in his action, 2) the actor could have acted otherwise and 3) the actor must be ‘ultimately responsible’ (Kane, 2005: 121) for his action. After I have explained them, I shall apply these conditions to three scenarios that cover most, if not any, circumstances that occur when taking choices. The purpose of this essay is to show that if my conditions are true, none of the scenarios is based on free will and thus we do not have free will.

The Tralfamadorian philosophy plays one of the most important roles in this book. Their view of free will allows Billy Pilgrim to take some of the blame of himself. There are many examples in the book that express that we do not have free will according to the tralfamadorians. The Tralfamadorians also believe that the moment is structured the way it is and it should not be changed.

Billy uses a few ways to cope with his depression, the first being a quote on his wall: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom always to tell the difference” (Vonnegut, 77). Billy clearly states that this is the quote that keeps him going in life; however when reviewing the quote itself it makes me wonder how this is useful to Billy when his mind is a shattered mess with fake time travels and extraterrestrial visits. Another question that arises is why is a religious quote used by Billy? Vonnegut specifically states that he is not religious and nor is Billy, so why use it? It is because Billy only wants to find a way to accept the things he cannot change-the past-and the courage to change the things he can-the future-and the wisdom to tell the difference. The only reason that Billy didn’t go to God is because he views God as pain and death from his interpretation of his mother’s crucifix. The last thing that Billy wanted was more death in his life; therefore, with a mix of his home life and his science fiction novels, he created Tralfamadorians. This quote was used by Billy because he needed an extra push to help himself, resulting in the creation of alien beings. In the end, I still believe that this quote wasn’t quite right for this novel based solely on that he wanted to become more one with

The moment he meets the Tralfamadorians, “Billy's will [is] paralyzed by a zap gun aimed at him from one of the portholes” (Vonnegut). The moment displays the concept of having no free will. Throughout the book, the Tralfamadorians have the saying: “And so it goes” (Vonnegut). This saying emphasizes the relation with Tralfamadorians and free will. The saying means that things will happen how they’re going to happen and one has to embrace it. It coincides with the “Tralfamadorian idea that we can do nothing about anything fully” (Vanderwerken). For example, Billy has a conversation with the Tralfamadorians which goes:

Have you ever felt like you could be in 2 places at once? The Tralfamadorians have the free will to go fourth dimensional view of their daily lives. It comforts Billy to think that time is totally predetermined and unchangeable and there is no free will.

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

Once Billy becomes capable of time travel and comes into contact with the Tralfamadorians, he simply goes through the motions of life but avoids falling into a defeatist attitude. Under the tutelage of the Tralfamadorians, Billy fashions a brand new perspective towards society and enhances his natural persona, “When Billy accepts the Tralfamadorian philosophy, the passivity that he has displayed his entire life—from wanting to drift quietly at the bottom of the YMCA pool after his father throws him in, to begging Roland Weary to leave him behind—is justified. If the future cannot be changed anyway, why even try?” (Farrell 9). Though the interaction with the Tralfamadorians seems to allow Billy an outlet to construct his own ideals upon the universe, he nonetheless continues along the same path as before. Billy becomes an extremist towards passivity in life rather than utilizing the experience to impart a strong impression

The central conflict of this book is Billy coming to terms with the unfortunate events happening around him, and facing this character versus world scenario of everything and everyone always being against him in some way or another. Billy sees so much suffering and so much death. He is blamed for the death of Ronald Weary, which is not his fault. He witnesses the Dresden Firebombing, and has an overall uneventful blain life to begin with. Billy needs to find a way to cope with this unbearable pressure, and whether or not the Tralmalfadorians are real, their message is real to Billy. The philosophy they present is the excuse Billy needs to justify all the wrong he sees around him. The Tralmalfadorian belief being that there is no free will, and that you timeline is fact, and that you simply experience death, but continue “existing” afterwards. Essentially, you always exist and what happens to you is predetermined fate. This allows Billy to pass on all of the death and misery around him as meant to be. He can rest assured knowing that there is nothing he could about anything in the past, present, or future. There was nothing he could have done or can do to stop the death and torture, weather it is the death of his wife, the firebombing in Dresden, or even his own death. This motivation-less philosophy is his resolution to his devastating conflict, and is directly responsible for his lack of action throughout the story.

     Vit interprets the passage as humans being physically stuck in this world, that we don’t have any choice over what we, mankind as a whole, do and what we head for. The only thing we can do is think about everything, but we won’t affect anything. This idea appears many times throughout the novel. This is one of the examples, when Billy proposes marriage to Valencia:

All moments, past, present and future always have existed, always will exist.” (pg. 22) The Tralfamadorian’s read everything all at once, however Vonnegut cannot arrange for this novel to be read simultaneously, so the structure of the book is shaped similarly to create that effect. The prayer in Billy’s office in real life where he works, is quite ironic as the meaning is deciphered as not being able to change the past, present and the future. For me, that meant that Billy doesn’t believe in free will, as he thinks that he can’t do or change anything about his life.

Through Billy the author is able to reveal to us that we have control over our destiny. How you choose to react to certain situations determines our future. There is nothing else stopping you from living a happy life but

The most important quote in the book is as follows, “So it goes.”After every instance of death or tragedy, you will read the Tralfamadorian saying “so it goes.” You see, all moments in life are predetermined, death is inescapable, and although your life may someday come to an end, the moments of the past, present, and future exist simultaneously. This brings about a sort of numbness in Billy, because every death he does experience is simply just a moment of someone's life and nothing more. They may seem dead, but they are currently enjoying life in another section of time as well. Free will doesn’t exist, so just like aliens staring at the newly found zoo specimen by the name of Billy Pilgrim, time should also be observed as a specimen of its own.

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.

But ignoring death and its suffering is exactly what Billy should not be doing, Vonnegut suggests. To do so makes him, like the Tralfamadorians, alien and inhuman. He has no sense of his own mortality, an awareness he needs in order to understand that, as Stephen Marten has observed, "life is valuable not because it is infinite but because it is so scarce" (11).