The Novel Slaughterhouse academia 3

Abstract: he novel is simple in syntax and sentence structure, part of Vonnegut's signature style. Likewise, irony, sentimentality, black humor, and didacticism are prevalent throughout the work.[6] Like much of his oeuvre, Slaughterhouse-Five is broken into small pieces, and in this case, brief experiences in one point in time. Vonnegut himself has claimed his books "are essentially mosaics made up of a whole bunch of tiny little chips...and each chip is a joke." Vonnegut also includes hand-drawn illustrations, a technique he repeated in his next novel, Breakfast of Champions (1973). Characteristically, Vonnegut makes heavy use of repetition, frequently using the phrase "So it goes": as a refrain when events of death, dying, and mortality occur or are mentioned, as a narrative transition to another subject, as a memento mori, as comic relief, and to explain the unexplained. It appears 106 times.[7][unreliable source?] The book has been classified as a postmodern, meta-fictional novel. The first chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five is written in the style of an author's preface about how he came to write the novel. The Narrator introduces the novel's genesis by telling of his connection to the Dresden bombing, and why he is recording it. He gives a description of himself and the book, saying that it is a desperate attempt at scholarly work. He ends the first chapter by discussing the beginning and end of the novel. He then segues to the story of Billy Pilgrim: "Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time" 1 Introduction: In Kurt Vonnegut's novel, The Slaughterhouse - Five or Children's Crusade, the story of Billy Pilgrim is used to explore various themes about life and war. Vonnegut's tragic war experience in Dresden led him to write about the horrors and tragedies of war. Vonnegut's connection with Billy and other characters allowed him to discuss human responses to death and traumatic events. Vonnegut used his characters, especially Billy Pilgrim, to portray his beliefs. The sentiment against war expressed through many characters dominates the entire novel from the beginning to the end. Vonnegut also questioned the notions of free will and the intended purpose. Billy deeply believes in predestination and quietism, but Vonnegut does not agree with these views and ideals. Vonnegut cited Billy as an example to illustrate the potential dangers of believing in fatalism and quietism. Vonnegut‟s anti-war sentiment created an important theme that emanate from Slaughterhouse –Five. As he was speaking to O'Hare at the beginning of the novel, Vonnegut said: “there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre” (19). And as Cox illustrates, the novel is “not an answer to the tragedy of war, but a response” (3). Vonnegut uses the characters he creates to express his reaction to the war. The idea of the author: Billy Pilgrim was used to show the terrible consequences of the war. Billy's time in the war greatly affected him and his worldview. Since his imprisonment, Billy began to feel that the war had no constructive results. He believed that “…war was not a heroic confrontation between the forces of good and evil, but a ruthless massacre with many victims and without villains"(Marvin 113). When Billy returned home from the 2 war, he was not used to talk about what he saw or felt; he tried to stay as far away from war as possible. Billy used the rest of his life as a mean to escape the war, just as he tried to escape war with death the first time he came to the Battle of the Bulge. When Weary tried to rescue him, Billy responded “You guys go on without me. I‟m all right” (Vonnegut 47). Billy didn't worry about saving his life. Vonnegut uses" Billy's innocence and negative attitude to help Vonnegut focus his readers' attention on the cruelty of war (Marvin 124). Vonnegut attracted readers in an attempt to sympathize with Billy. The reader saw Billy Pilgrim suffering the pain of war. He thought it made no sense and the reader began to see Billy feeling the horror of war. Antiwar Characteristics in the novel: Vonnegut also used characters to portray his anti-war themes. Marvin said: "He (Edgar Derby) is the most admirable character in the book, which makes his meaningless death even more tragic" (126). Vonnegut used the death of Derby to deepen readers' sense of meaningless war. Derby is a forty-four-year-old teacher with a wife at home. His only crime was to take a teapot. However, because of this simple move, he survived the entire war, losing his life after the bomb attack in the prisoner of war camp and Dresden. Another character used by Vonnegut is Roland Weary. Weary people long for war against the Nazis. Weary‟s passion for war “is the prime example of how stories that glorify war shape the attitudes of young boys and make them eager to fight” (Marvin 125). Vonnegut's novels were against the stories that made the war great. Slaughterhouse – Five shows what happens to the enthusiastic boy who is preparing to fight for his country. He could die like gangrene on the train running towards the prisoner of war camp as weary, and the train was flooded with 3 soldiers. The most blatant anti-war discussions in the novel took place during the opening ceremony between Vonnegut and Mary O'Hare. He feared that the book would embellish war like many books and movies of the past. He feared that the book portrayed "babies" in war as adult men, and these babies would be interpreted by "dirty old war lovers" (14). Vonnegut assured Mary that the novel would show the brutality and horror of war. He even promised: “I‟ll call it „The Children‟s Crusade‟” (15) because he believed that "there is nothing to say about the Holocaust" (19). In the end, "Vonnegut, after studying causality in Dresden, concluded that in fact there is no morality, only the three bird call links" (Lundquist 45). "Poo-tee-weet" (Vonnegut 215) is the only rational reflection on the war that Vonnegut can find. He could not explain or even comment on the deaths and destruction he saw in Dresden. This reinforces the notion that war can even have terrible consequences for those who survive the war and return home like Vonnegut and even Billy Pilgrims. Billy found his own explanation for the explosions and deaths of so many innocent people. He turned to Trafamadol's beliefs, arguing that death cannot be prevented and must happen, because that should happen. He and no one else can change his destiny and decide what will happen. Given these deaths and all the deaths Billy saw, he only had one reaction, "let it go" (Vonnegut 96). This phrase is cited when Billy's death is mentioned. Marvin believes: "Although the novel adopts Trafamado's custom, which says 'go and go' when there is death, this relentless repetition shows that behind this the fatalistic attitude is absurd" (128). Vonnegut used Billy as an example to show that humans should not respond to war. Billy described death as accidental and had no real consequences, but in fact death causes a lot of pain and suffering every day. Vonnegut uses this contradiction to show readers that "death is inevitable, but some deaths can be avoided, and the novels constantly show that humans have the capacity 4 to shape the present and the future" (Marvin 128). The problem of free will and inevitable life became the second main theme of the novel. While traveling to Trafamato, Billy learned from residents that he had no control over what would happen to him in the future. He cannot change the events in his life, because he was doomed before he was born. In a sense, it "always exists" (Tanner 128). The Tralfamadorians discussed the idea of "free will" with Billy (Vonnegut 86). They knew that free will was not realistic in their world, and they said that the earth was the only place where people believed in "free will" (Vonnegut 86). Billy could not fully understand the concept, because he only lived in three dimensions, and Trafamadu could see the fourth dimension of time. They can see all the time at once, including the future, and realize that it is impossible to change their destiny because destiny has been determined. Billy was tired of this idea and ignored his life for the rest of his life. Nothing Billy was surprised because he thought it would happen. He does not regret because he or anyone cannot stop him. The idea that no one can control their own future has led to two reactions. A person can feel challenged and try to change his life. However, most people do what Billy does, and "really" is not excited "for life" (Tanna 129). Uncaring attitude: Throughout the novel, Billy's indifference is endless. During the opening ceremony, Billy didn't care that he was protected from certain deaths in the snowy forest. Roland Weary must stay to continue pushing Billy forward. In planes that have accepted the practice of optometrists, Billy knew they were about to crash, but he didn't care about all the lives that would be lost if the plane crashed. When Billy first left the 5 slaughterhouse, he saw that "all who were near were dead. That is the case" (Vonnegut 178). Billy felt no sorrow or regret for the thousands who had just been killed by the bomb. In the final chapter, Billy is the most deadly companion of the war, Edgar Derby, and Billy reacts without apparent care, saying only "Let's do it"). Billy seemed dead for each of these traumatic events. Robert Merrill believes: "Vonnegut's approach to the issue of quietism is based on a common belief that modern life is beyond the reach of responsible people" 177). Billy's passion for tranquility prevented him from worrying about the events of his life. Experience the life of "Billy Pilgrim." Vonnegut wants us to see the terrible consequences of succumbing to such beliefs [silence] (Merrill 178). Vonnegut does not defend quietism, but uses Billy's story to explain insignificant problems in life. Vonnegut uses the role of Billy Pilgrim to explain why people should not respond to tragic situations like Billy. Vonnegut uses Billy's moving story as an example to illustrate what happens when a person feels that life has no meaning and cannot control his own destiny. Tanner states that "all the work shows ... if humans do nothing about the living conditions and quality of life of humans on Earth, nobody will, and nobody else" (130). If people feel they can't work anymore to move forward, their enthusiasm to improve and society will collapse. Harris believes that if "the goal is stripped of the universe." . Man‟s confidence collapses "(131). Uncaring attitude: The idea of a universe with purpose does not have to be true, but as long as people see "the illusion of a universe with purpose" (Harris 131), they will continue as if they were real. The moral concept proposed by Vonnegut agrees that some things cannot be controlled by man, but some things can be changed by man. Vonnegut wants 6 readers to realize that "it would be good to have the courage to change what we can do" (Harris 137), but this is only half the moral. Vonnegut also showed that people should not worry about things they cannot change. He believes that when life presents obstacles that cannot be changed, one must respond with "acceptance of resignation" (Harris 137). Religious and psychological focus in the novel: Vonnegut learned from his experience in war that death was something he could not stop. He has realized that "even if the war does not continue like a glacier, it will be dead" (Vonnegut 4). A prayer book hangs on the wall of Billy's office: "God gives me peace, accepts things that I cannot change, has the courage to change the things I can change and always tells the difference wisely" (Vonnegut 60). This is the information about the purpose and destiny of the man Vonnegut tried to portray in Slaughterhouse House 5. Billy was the result of a hoax that could not change much. He believes that "he [what] cannot be changed in the past, present and future" (Vonnegut 60). Billy is absolutely capable of identifying things that he cannot change, and can even change things that he can correct, but he lacks judgment to perceive the difference between the two. Vonnegut uses this weakness of Billy to illustrate what happens when a person thinks that the whole world is in his hands and cannot change his life. When Billy gains a new conviction that he cannot change his destiny, his life loses meaning. If Vonnegut tries to support the idea of tranquility, Billy's life will improve after enlightenment. Instead, Billy became "... not only" wasted time "but also crazy" (Lupack 108). This shows that Vonnegut wanted to emphasize the consequences of tranquility. He used Billy as an example to illustrate that he should not lead his own 7 life. Billy Pilgrim's life raises a question: "What is the purpose of life?" (McGinnis 55). Billy believes that life has no purpose, and is forced to live according to his destiny. From Billy's weakness and despair, one can see that the answer to the question is "man must reach his goal arbitrarily" (McGinnis 55). People have no purpose in life, but Billy believes that people must work hard to find a goal in life. Billy doesn't think he needs to find an end, because the end only comes through his intended destination. Vonnegut expressed his opinions against the war through novels. Use characters from the novel to show how war can affect many different types of people. In each case, the results are tragic. Both Roland Weary and Edgar Derby were killed in the war, and all the deaths Billy saw left him exhausted and died inside. As Vonnegut promised Mary O'Hare, the book did not glorify the war, but showed the tragedies and sorrows caused by the war. This book is not a novel about men who like war and want to glorify it. As Vonnegut promised, "Frank Sinatra or John Wayne will not be involved" (15). Vonnegut's other main theme in Slaughterhouse V was reality and preconceived notions of free will. Use the actions and thoughts of the characters in the story to develop these two concepts. Billy Pilgrim is usually a character used to express Vonnegut's opinion. It was used as an example of someone who was contrary to Vonnegut's point of view. Billy felt that his life had been outlined long before he was born, that he had no free will to change his life. This made him feel purposeless in his life. Vonnegut used Billy's miserable life to show the consequences of quietism. He wants readers to see that they can change their world and their future. 8 The relationship between the title and the content of the novel: The cover of Slaughterhouse Five describes the novel as "appearing to some extent in the form of telegraphic schizophrenia in the history of the Trafalado planet." This prayer can give the impression that Billy himself suffers from schizophrenia, and his pranks and experiences of aliens and time travel are only the result of this disease. However, after a more detailed analysis, it is clear that this is Billy's too simplified character. As mentioned earlier, although the word "schizophrenia" appears in the description of the novel, the word to which attention should be paid in this sentence is "courtesy." This sentence is not used to describe Billy's nature, but to describe the shape of the story. That is, "schizophrenia is an adjective that describes a story, not a character. Still, many events that seem to be explained by attributing it to schizophrenia, so look closely at the symptoms of the disease and how they compare with those of Leigh la relationship is very useful. On the surface, Billy shows several symptoms common to schizophrenia. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), these symptoms include loss of connection to reality, hallucinations, delirium and lack of fun in daily life Assuming that the Trafamado does not exist outside of Billy's mind, one can conclude that Billy is really losing contact with reality, the time he travels repeatedly and the encounters with alien races have proved it, and they can also fall into the category of hallucinations: Delusions are described as "false beliefs that do not belong to the culture of the person and do not change," while the person believes that their delusions "Even after others have shown that their elements are not real or logical" (NIH). Billy believes in his belief in Trafamadu Often stubborn, even though he and his daughter tried to reason with their absurdity. "This is crazy. She said:" None of this is true "(37), adding that" there is no planet as a Trafamador "(37). Billy did not admit that his idea was illogical to any other person in 9 his right mind. It was amazing, he just said that the reason no one knew about Trafamado was because he could not be found from Earth, so it shows that his point is totally reasonable Billy never questioned his supernatural experience, which further demonstrates his Illusion The last symptom is the lack of fun in everyday life, which is another symptom that Billy shows throughout the book, due to the lack of emotion and total indifference, nothing in his novel seems to bring any real happiness to Billy Although these symptoms point to the disease, schizophrenia is not an accurate diagnosis of Billy Pilgrim, although it can be said that his visit to Trafamand was an illusion, this would be the only hallucination that Billy experienced in the novel, which makes him A declaration of schizophrenia is, at best, a narrative. Veel-Gulani shares the same opinion. He believes that Billy will not suffer hallucinations at all, but "his fantasy seems to be the result of a vivid imagination, and he uses it as a sensory tool to deal with his war wounds" (176). Therefore, I believe that the most appropriate diagnosis for Billy is PTSD. Personal reflection of the writer in the novel: Kurt Vonnegut himself went through many different events described in the novel and was a soldier and prisoner of war (POW) during World War II, especially the bombing of Dresden. After returning home, Vonnegut encountered many difficulties and could not describe them. The reader knows this in the first chapter of the book, which is the preface to the novel, and is clearly an autobiography. The narrator, speaking with the wife of war partner Mary O'Hare, said: "Now he must write five thousand pages and then throw them away" (19), referring to his decision to write this book on war and Dresden. Dayton article. He later said that if he did, he intended to 11 call it "Children's Crusade." The original name of Slaughterhouse No. 5 (19) (and part of its full name). In a sense, the book became an autobiography of Vonnegut in the form of a fictional story. Although Vonnegut has been identified as the narrator of the book (160), Monica Loeb argues that "there are two main narrators in the five slaughterhouses: one is the true author, Vonnegut I, another non-personal, apparently omniscient narrator." He affirmed that "one story corresponds to facts, and the other belongs to a fictional world" (Loeb 7). In the narrative context, this is a compelling point, since it has been transformed from the autobiographical style shown in Chapter One to tell Billy's fictional story. In addition, it is important to note that although Billy Pilgrim is not Vonnegut and Vonnegut is not Billy Pilgrim, they have some characteristics that indicate that Billy was created under the image of Vonnegut. Vonnegut participated in the same battle, was also captured as a prisoner of war and was even born on November 11, 1922 (Reed): the same as Billy Pilgrim (30). This relationship between Billy and Vonnegut and the world he created is crucial to understanding the existence of PTSD in the novel. In this novel, Vonnegut not only created a fictional character plagued with posttraumatic stress disorder; he experienced the same trauma or very similar to the one Vonnegut experienced after the war, reflecting on myself. This reflection of Vonnegut's personal experience can be clearly seen not only by looking at the main characters of the novel, but also by the narrative and structure of the novel. On the surface, Slaughterhouse No. 5 seems to have been written in a chaotic and often ridiculous way. Fiction and its content can sometimes be confusing, leaving readers unsure of what is happening and questioning the real and the false. In a sense, this book can be seen as a literary expression of the psychological processes of people who have experienced great trauma. What will be covered later in this article. Follow the narrative techniques suggested by Holmgren 11 Troy, which are common when expressing traumatic memories and experiences in the literature, such as "repetition, fragmentation, vacancy or omission, lack of chronological order and transformation of tense" (85-86). Despite the strong connection between the author and Billy, this article will treat Slaughterhouse-Five 5 as a novel and, therefore, will not focus on the trauma or strategy of the narrator. The narrator as a character has not developed throughout the novel and, therefore, cannot be a suitable object for analysis. The narrator is probably using the book, so Billy is considered a strategy to deal with his trauma, but Billy's personality analysis is more valuable in the context of the story. Reflection of critics' views on the novel: As Nitta (2011) observed, even the narrator does not seem to be convinced that Billy really travels through time and space. When he described Billy's time for the first time, he used the phrase "he said" many times (no segment). The narrator did not simply state that Billy had become a fact long ago, but said: "He has seen his life and death many times, he said, and conducted random interviews about all the events there. He said" (29). If one believes that Billy really travels through time and space, then he will have to accept his own words instead of a skeptical narrator as a spectator. In addition, there is no indication that any character in the novel reacts in any way to the sudden appearance and disappearance of Billy, who is believed to have traveled through time and space. Martino also made this argument, and came to a similar conclusion: "Billy's body does not leave the time and space it occupies before jumping, so the time travel in which Billy participates must be purely a brain experience "(Martino 8). Billy pointed out the reasons behind the lack of response 12 from others, stating that "Trafamadu has deformed him, so he can remain in Trafamadu for several years, but only from Earth at a distance of microseconds" (3233) . Although this explanation seemed reasonable to Billy, it was more likely to be a way of understanding his experience. Compared to the current time, little is known about mental illnesses (such as PTSD) during this time, so it makes sense that Billy rationalizes the symptoms unconsciously in a way that makes sense to him. The first time described in Slaughterhouse No. 5 occurred on the day (29 years) when "Billy slept with a sleeping older husband and woke up on his wedding day", and when Billy was older than here. Not by chance. Any other content of the novel. Although it was said that Billy had been unleashed in time for the first time during World War II, he tried to lean on a tree when he returned to their ranks after the battle (54), but I think this time travel An example is how Billy remembers being an old man. Therefore, everything in this book happened in the past, and through the memory of old Billy, he was forced to revive them due to the PTSD of that time. This shows that Billy should be able to move forward in time and encounter events that have not yet occurred. The outside world in the novel: For the outside world, Billy maintains a completely indifferent character. Even when it comes to war, he seems not to care or refuse to talk about it. When his wife Valencia asked him about the war, Billy gave him extremely vague and simple answers. "You must have a secret about the war. She told Billy, or not a secret, but something you don't want to talk about" (155), and Billy said "No" to him (155). It was an obvious lie, but maybe Billy didn't even notice. He never talked about war or experience with anyone because he was in a mental state and tried to stop his life, 13 because talking about his experience would definitely cause Billy to collapse, destroying his desperate shield of indifference. I need to work. In the next round of dialogue, it became clear that Valencia asked if the war was terrible. Although he simply gives the answer "sometimes" (155), Billy is described as bewildered by the facts. The fact that Billy was surprised when he realized how terrible war really was proved the effectiveness of his emotional protection. Billy is always traumatized and forced to live (and relive) the terrible memories he has experienced, but on a subconscious level rather than a conscious level. He knew the war was terrible, but it was only after Valencia raised it that he could really tell. That's why Billy can't talk about war, and why it's a lie to say he doesn't want to talk about war. Doing this would make Billy really aware of the horrors he experienced. Things I couldn't avoid because I needed to avoid working in the outside world. The emotional numbness and avoidance done by Billy is an integral part of his ability to deal with trauma, as victims of emotional trauma often find. VeelGulani compared Billy's passive response to death with the response of the Hiroshima bombing survivors, calling them "mentally numb" or "schizophrenic" (VeelGulani 178). Like the Hiroshima survivor, Billy adjusted a new perspective of death to keep him sane, although at the expense of appearing uninteresting. Avoidance and mental numbness are Billy's protective shield, which, as Veel-Gulani said, offers him "the possibility of living a" normal life "" (178). After suffering a great emotional trauma, victims often do not fully understand the traumatic experience. This is because special traumatic events often overlook the parts of the survivor's brain that generally help define or explain it, creating "missing thoughts" (Wicks 329). When asked about the brutality of the war, this was in line with Billy's response. Not only was Billy not willing to talk about war, but he couldn't really talk about war. The traumatic event "affects only the meaning" (Vickers 329). 14 Although traumatic contrasts continue to have a profound impact, you cannot explain it in words because it masks the meaning. Conflicts in the novel: In a novel strongly influenced by Vonnegut's real life experience, it seems odd to initially include the fictional aliens of the Trafalado planet as an important element of the plot of the story. Despite being strongly influenced by the type of science fiction, I would like to point out that, at least in the traditional sense, Trafalado has not made Slaughterhouse V a science fiction. The tralfamadorians are not aliens in other ways, but the embodiment of Billy's problematic thoughts. There is also evidence that the alien race is strongly influenced by the work of Kilgore Trout, and Billy is obsessed with science fiction. When looking at the Trafamadores as Billy's coping mechanism instead of the true supernatural alien race, it makes sense to include them in the context of the story. Chapter 5 is Billy lying next to former infantry captain Eliot Rosewater in a hospital bed. This is the majority of people that Billy and Trafalmad have experienced. One of the convincing signs. He was described as "responding to similar crises in a similar manner" (128), suggesting that Rothwater suffered the same postwar illness as Billy: "They both found life meaningless, partly because they were in the world." "(128). The veteran with the same problems that Billy was the one who introduced him to science fiction, especially science fiction writer Kilgore Trout. Trout quickly became Billy's favorite writer, and" science fiction became the only novel he could read "(128). Billy founded the Trafamadu based on his books, especially the Big Board. This Kilgo trout novel was not mentioned until the end of the story, in which a man was kidnapped and exhibited in a zoo on an alien planet. Obviously, this is very similar to Billy's experience, because he was also kidnapped 15 by the alien race and taken to the zoo. Billy also seems to have borrowed from other Kilgore Trout jobs, especially the Gospel of the outer space, in which one of the aliens "very similar to the Trafamado" studied Christian. It is likely that this book is the figure of the Trafamandor borrowed from Billy's book. He is "a two foot tall, plumber-shaped green friend" with a small hand of green eyes on his palm. The upper part of the shaft (33). This strange appearance is far from what one would expect from an alien race, and it sounds more like the work of a failed science fiction writer. It fits perfectly with the description of Trout Kilgore. These Kilgore Trout jobs helped Billy and Rosewater cope with the traumatic trauma they caused. "They try to reform themselves and their universe" (128) when they are lying in a hospital bed, and science fiction is an important part of the process. Literally, Billy reinvented the universe in his own mind to incorporate the Trafamandor into his own reality. Rosewater told the psychiatrist that it is an essential aspect of Billy's life: "I think you will have to invent many wonderful new lies, otherwise people simply will not want to continue living" (129).Without the Tralfamadorians and their philosophy, Billy would have no reason to keep living. On the other hand, Trout‟s work may have had a profound negative effect on Billy as well. Josh Simpson agrees that the Tralfamadorians are created by Billy as an escape mechanism using Trout‟s novel as his influence, further pointing out that although “war psychologically wounds Billy Pilgrim […] the ideas contained in Kilgore Trout‟s science fiction novels are, ultimately, responsible for his complete divorce from reality” (267). It is a point that is important to make, as it highlights the fact that psychological trauma alone is not the cause of Billy‟s escape mechanism, but also the influence of Trout‟s novels. Tralfamadorians do not appear until after Billy starts reading the works of Trout, and it is doubtful that he would have been able to create such an effective coping 16 mechanism, while at the same time removing himself so thoroughly from reality, without the influence of his favourite author. With Kilgore Trout‟s influence on Billy‟s creation of the Tralfamadorian established, it is important to focus on why exactly the Tralfamadorian philosophy of life is so important to Billy. When Billy is first abducted, he asks the Tralfamadorians one question: Why him? The answer that they provide is an example of the view they have on free will: “Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is” (97). The concept of cause and effect is not part of the Tralfamadorian philosophy, as everything is predetermined. There is no reason for Billy being abducted. He is, as the Tralfamadorians would describe it, a “bug trapped in amber […] Trapped in the amber of this moment” (97). When confronted by Billy about their disbelief in free will, Tralfamadorians respond by saying that if they hadn‟t spent so much time studying Earthlings, they “wouldn‟t have any idea what was meant by „free will‟” (109), explaining that out of the hundreds of planets they are familiar with, Earth is the only one with any talk of free will. Free will is therefore an unnatural concept and Billy accepts this philosophy as fact. The Tralfamadorian view: The Tralfamadorian view on life and death is drastically different from that of humans. Billy states that the most important thing he has learned from the Tralfamadorians is that “when a person dies he only appears to die” (34), and that it is silly to mourn a person‟s death as they are “still very much alive in the past” (34). Tralfamadorians do not see a person‟s life as a straight timeline from point A (birth) to point Z (death). Instead, they see humans as “great millipedes – with babies‟ legs at one end and old people‟s legs at the other” (110). Since time is not a journey from one 17 point to the other, even though a person is dead they are still alive at another point in time. Humans are not born and then go through a series of events on a linear timeline which will ultimately lead to their definitive death; all these events are happening simultaneously. It is for this reason that Tralfamadorians, and as a result Billy, do not see the purpose in grieving over someone‟s death. As he describes it, “All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist” (34). This philosophy serves as the foundation of the phrase “so it goes”, which is what Tralfamadorians say in regard to death (34). These new ideas are what helps Billy live with the events he has experienced and suffered through in his life. Veel-Gulani comes to the same conclusion, and suggests that “Tralfamadorian philosophy, which opposes trying to make sense out of occurrences, helps Billy deal with the horrible events and their consequences by reinterpreting their meaning” (179). On one hand, this relates back to the way that Billy is not able to fully understand or interpret the traumatic experiences he suffered through as discussed earlier. Instead of trying to understand why, in particular, the Dresden bombing had to happen and why so many innocent people lost their lives, the Tralfamadorian philosophy tells Billy that there is no “reason” for anything. Instead of attempting to process the fact that a horrible and traumatic event ended the life of tens of thousands of people, Billy is able to view both the event and deaths as inconsequential with his “so it goes” mentality on life and death. Billy is able to, as Veel-Gulani states, “conquer his trauma in a way that enables him to function” (Veel-Gulani, 180). After adopting the philosophy of the Tralfamadorians, Billy is able to escape his PTSD and live an outwardly normal life in which his emotions never get the best of him, save for the aforementioned weeping. In doing this, however, he is resigned to the life of apathy and indifference that has such a profound effect on his relationship with people. 18 Conclusion: Billy is a very problematic person, and only through careful analysis can he really understand his mental state. A more complete understanding of Billy Pilgrim's personality will not only give readers a more complete understanding of Slaughterhouse 5, but will also explain the seemingly incompatible nature of the novel with the traditional anti-war section. history. The moment of the trip and the encounter with the aliens of Trafamado are no longer science fiction elements in a semi-autobiographical book. They are just the result of Billy's mental discomfort. Billy doesn't have time to travel. He was just experiencing traumatic events in his mind again. This, along with his emotional shield of life and his total indifference to life, and his close relationship with other characters and his family strongly suggest that Billy suffers from a severe post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result, under the strong influence of the work of science fiction author Kilgore Trout, Billy was fascinated by Billa Famando and his philosophy, and invented an alternative reality. These Tralfamadorians became Billy's coping mechanism because they told him about the absence of free will and the senselessness of crying to someone. 19 References: - Cox, Brett F. “An Overview of Slaughterhouse-Five.” Exploring Novels. Gale, 1988. GaleNet. Web. 1 Feb. 2004. - Harris, Charles B. “Illusion and Absurdity: The Novels of Kurt Vonnegut.” Ed. Robert Merrill . Contemporary American Novelists of the Absurd. 1971: 15. Rpt. in Critical Essays on Kurt Vonnegut. - Ed. Robert Merrill .Boston, MA: G.K. 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Print. 21 - Loeb, Monica. Vonnegut's Duty-Dance With Death - Theme and Structure in “Slaughterhouse-Five”. Diss. U of Umeå, 1979. Umeå: Umeå Universitetsbibliotek, 1979. Print. - Martino, J. A. "Billy Pilgrim's Motion Sickness: Chronesthesia and Duration In Slaughterhouse-Five." Philament 16. (2010): 4-20. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. - Nitta, Reiko. "Kurt Vonnegut‟s Psychological Strategies in SlaughterhouseFive". PSYART: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts. 15 Dec, 2009. Web. 18 Nov, 2011 - "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)." The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Ed. Bonnie Strickland. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 505-507. - Reed, Peter. "Kurt Vonnegut's Fantastic Faces." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 10.1 (1999): n. pag. Web. http://www.vonnegut.com/artist.asp 21 10 Nov. 2014. Accessed via