Many individuals suffer from PTSD, a disorder caused by stressful experiences in the past. It is an acronym for post-traumatic stress disorder. Many people are influenced by this disorder, causing them to suffer and be unable to live average lives. There are a few characters in the novel "Slaughterhouse Five" that show how the suffering of PTSD has affected their daily lives, provoking them to perform daily tasks. Billy Pilgrim is a character that suffers from many mental illnesses, one being PTSD. He primarily gets this from being in the War. It was said “A siren went off, scared the hell out of him. He was expecting the Third World War at any time.” (page 57) This quote is an example of the PTSD that the war gave Billy since his first thought when hearing the bell was that the next world war was starting. PTSD can be triggered by anything, in this case, it was the bell. Every time Billy heard that sound in the past it had an association with the war, so when he heard it again, war was his first instinct. Another example is when Billy witnesses a quartet sing and “Billy was emotionally racked again. The experience was definitely associated with those four men and not what they sang” (pages 175-176). …show more content…
Some people tend to overreact or underreact. Others may have a random burst of emotions. In this scene, Billy is going into a wagon that is being pulled by horses but before Billy gets in he “...saw the condition of his means of transportation, he burst into tears. He hadn't cried about anything else in the war.” (page 197) One of the reasons why Billy is crying is because this was his breaking point. Seeing the horses was probably not as traumatic as seeing your friends and soldiers die or suffer, but since he had kept his emotions and feelings in for such a long time this was his last straw. This is one example of how people with PTSD may not be emotionally stable and may experience random emotional
1. “… and then suffered a mild nervous collapse. He was treated in a veteran’s hospital near Lake Placid, and was given shock treatments and released.” (Vonnegut,24) This quote has to do with Billy’s mental health because it states he had a breakdown and spent time in a hospital for treatment.
By witnessing the horrific events of war, it is likely Billy has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD), which throughout the novel causes to review and repeat events through his life. Post traumatic stress disorder involves disturbance of sleep and constant
Even after twenty-five years, Billy’s subconscious mind still remains attached to the life in war-torn Germany. The plane crash functions as a psychological trigger which then provides Billy with flashbacks of the
PTSD is a post traumatic stress disorder most veterans get after coming home from war. In the book Slaughterhouse Five it shows how a war veteran has PTSD, shows the reality of war, and how to find a purpose in life. Slaughterhouse Five is a banned book but a reader may believe it should be open to young adults such as teens. They can understand what people go through and they can relate because they all probably have felt sad or depressed at a point in time.
He can't clarify or even remark on the passing and pulverization he has seen in Dresden. This reinforces the thought that war can have ghastly results even on the individuals who survive the war physically and return home as Vonnegut and even Billy Pilgrim do. Billy discovers his clarification of the shelling and the passing of such a large number
In chapter one, the narrator comes out and says how it is basically an anti-war book. While following Billy through his time travels, the readers are able to see the war from his point of view. Billy cannot glorify the war in any way. He is in a way thrust into it at first and then he became a prisoner of war.
It is the moaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning.” (61) That quote describes how painful it was for the men to listen to innocent creature slowly die. The horses have done no bad deed, they just happened to be standing where the shots were fired and were hit instead of the enemy. This shows how war creates a loss of innocence, in multiple aspects. While the men were listening to the horses cry for hours, waiting to be put out of their misery, the men become depressed.
Billy “time travels” as far back as his birth, which a normal person would never be able to remember. The style Kurt Vonnegut uses makes it difficult to understand if the novel is anti-war. Nonetheless, Kurt Vonnegut employs Billy Pilgrim’s “time
He went crazy and did things he normally wouldn’t do. He took out all his anger and frustration on a baby animal. This demonstrates how he was unable to cope, how he lost himself and his mind to the death of war. The platoon didn’t feel bad or intervene for the water buffalo either. This shows how the end of the war changed all of them.
Even in his final moments, Weary refuses to see war for what it is and instead places all blame on Billy, who discouraged Weary from saving him at all. Weary blames Billy because if he didn't, he'd have to accept that it was all for nothing, that there is no real honor in destruction. Body 2: (Topic Sentence/Quote with page#/Analysis) * / 0
It is easy to say that this event in Billy’s life was a traumatic one, and obviously one he thinks about often, since he decides to “travel” back to it. It is possible that Billy was unable to fully understand what this event did to him and with this, is unable find closure with it. This, in a way, foreshadows into Billy’s life as an adult and his ability to deal with adulthood traumas, such as WWII and more specifically the firebombing of Dresden. Childhood trauma is a risk factor which “makes a person more likely to develop PTSD” (National Institute of Mental Health). Since Billy was unable to develop the skills necessary to get past trauma as a child, and therefore
Billy is said to become unstuck in time to different events in his life. He flashes to memories of Dresden, which is the war that he participated in. He also has episodes of his flight crash, he knows how he will die, and how his wife dies. This book is so sporadic, the audience never truly knows when this book is taking place in Billy’s life. Each page could contain three or more different events in Billy’s
Billy gave his power and life to tralfamadorians who control which moments from his life he goes to next. “When I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes". (Page 27) He learns from the tralfamadorians and not his experiences, he completely lost his contact with the world and people dying around him. The war swallowed Billy whole and consumed his ability to control his life.
Another way holden shows PTSD is when he is the manager of the fencing team. “I was the goddam manager for the fencing team. Very big deal. We'd gone in to New York that morning for this fencing meet with McBurney School. Only, we didn't have the meet.
Some experiences, like the sudden unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD” (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). PTSD, like many other diseases, can arise from a number of conditions, making it hard to pinpoint where it stems from. Vonnegut takes into account that PTSD can come from a number of sources, providing a plethora of possible explanations for Billy’s mental capacity throughout the novel. For instance, early in Billy’s life, Billy, along