SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5
This is a novel written by Kurt Vonnegut which is the most interesting and educative novel which basically involves a narration on the history of the Second World War targeted on the younger generation and the coming generations. The main actor of this novel is a solder, Bill Pilgrim where the narration focuses on his life familiarity and adventure as it further explains some of the difficulties that Bill faced during his period in the military. Readers perceive the novel as the most significant written work of Vonnegut which pursues the examination that he used firebombing of Dresden as the fundamental occurrence therefore making the novel to be like an autobiographical because he was a participant at that time of the bombing (Vonnegut 41). The reader is expected to flashback on the imaginary topic as the novel is structured in a nonlinear progression.
Billy Pilgrim is a Chaplain assistant who is ill-trained, confused and philosophical American soldier who declines from engaging in war. However he is captured by the Germans during the Bulge battle which occurred in 1944 and the consequences of his close to death were as a result of the sequence of events. Billy is blamed for the death of Weary one of the prisoners and it is at this point in timed that he becomes ‘unstuck in time’ where he experience flashbacks on his previous life (Vonnegut pg.18). ‘And so on, Billy said that he first came unstuck in time in 1944, long before his trip to Tralfamadore (Vonnegut pg. 30). later they are transported to a place known as the Luxembourg, later to Dresden in 1945 so as to become contracted laborers. They are then put into slaughter house five and when the bombing occurred they were among the few people who survived.
It is after this that Billy was released but then almost immediately he is hospitalized and he is diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is thus positioned under psychiatric care. It is after his discharge that he later marries and after three years of marriage they are gifted with a second born who is a girl, Barbara.
It is on Barbara’s wedding that Bill is detained by creature from outer space ship and is taken into a planet illumination years far from the earth, Tralfamadore. Through the use of the Tralfamadorians the interjection of the science fiction string is seen in the novel as it points out how the war has greatly affected Billy’s existence. As a result of the post traumatic stress disorder, he starts to hallucinate about his knowledge on the tralfamadorians as a form of hiding from the world which he perceives as a destroyed one as he cannot understand it. He thus uses the Tralfamadorians four perspectives on death as he finds it more convenient to give good reason for death than what he had actually seen with his own eyes. Universally the Tralfamadorians believe that death has no meaning but rather ‘so it goes’ (Vonnegut pg.20). The Tralfamadorians believe that all instants of life occur and reoccur ceaselessly and instantaneously. He is so traumatized that he cannot come into standings with the destruction of the war unless he invokes a far drawn and impossible theory which he can use to shape the globe. While in Tralfamadore, he is placed in a crystal clear geodetic dome displayed in a zoo which is a representation of the earth. While there he falls in love with a porn star who is also captured by the Tralfamadorians with a goal of providing Bill with a mate. They later fall in love and marry later giving birth to a child. Instantaneously, Bill is transported back to earth in a time wrap so as to remember his past or future instants of his life.
According to the Tralfamadorians, fate and will does not exist. Thus as Bill is in Tralfamadore he is able to view differently with the Christians who believes in fate and free will which as part of Gods predetermined will on humanity. This is totally different to the Tralfamadorians as they believe that things are the way they are and will remain to be like that permanently as nothing can change them as they are determined by destiny.
Tralfamadorians believed and view time all at once as this is evidently portrayed in a conversation with Billy where they state that, ‘I am the Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is’ (Vonnegut pg.62). It is after this conversation that Billy that he states that his philosophy on free will does not appear like suggesting meaning. To the reply that the Tralfamadorians ‘free will’, they stated that out of the visited 31 populated planets in the world and the studied reports on one hundred more earth planet was the only planet where free will concept was available (Vonnegut Pg.62). Billy’s life always occurred against the forces that secures his free will. For instance in his childhood his dad allows him to sink in a pool so as to show him how to swim in the deep end which he happens to like but against his will he is rescued. Later in life he is forced into war against his free will. Billy said that, ‘everything is alright and everybody has to do what he does’ (Vonnegut pg. 198).
Tralfamadorians philosophy is basically based on ‘determinism and passivity’ as all time is preordained and whatsoever will be, will be. Therefore according to them no one can change anything basically because destiny implies that they either have happened or will eventually happen.
Bill having the knowledge of fate passivity from the Tralfamadorians helps him to manage his perception on death and the shock that comes along with death and this becomes his major and significant lesson from the Tralfamadorians. Hence he finds no reason for crying at the funeral of a person as they are actually alive in the historical time as they also view the dead as in a critical condition at that particular point but better in other moments of his life. ‘Now when I myself see that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is ‘so it goes’(Vonnegut pg.27).
The post-traumatic stress disorder that was initiated by the hardships that Bill faced is seen to have really affected him to a point of hallucination and insanity. It is at this point that the narrator decides to use science fiction in Slaughter 5 novel. The Tralfamadorians can thus be seen as the scientists who generally have different views with those of Christianity and Bill widely adopts the Tralfamadorians philosophy but this act can only be viewed as an escape from what his stress disorders.
References
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-five: Or, the Children's Crusade : a Duty-Dance with Death. London: Vintage, 2000. Print.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-five, Or, the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. New York: Dell, 1988. Print.
