Senseless Violence In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five the author begins with a struggle of remembrance of the things that were experienced while in Dresden but soon finds a way to explain through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim. Billy is introduced and recalls his time in Dresden much of which he spent abducted by aliens known as Tralfamadorians, the Tralfamadorians are described as having plunger bodies and have eyes that are in the palm of their hands. Along with having a physical difference from humans they also have different ways of how their society runs and their philosophical views. The input of the Tralfamadorians is a way for the author to question the idea of whether free will exists or not and challenges the idea for humans. The idea of free will is used

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” As the renowned scientist Albert Einstein stated, the lack of free will can be highly detrimental to society. This principle is also emphasized in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, in which the main character, Billy Pilgrim, is involved in a plane crash. This accident further unsettles his mental condition, in addition to his experiences in World War II. This causes Billy to imagine about an alien planet called Tralfamadore, where they believe that all incidents in time are structured and that free will has no impact on the future. They also claim that damaging events such as war cannot be prevented. Through the use of diction and irony, Vonnegut reveals that one must utilize free will in order to overcome the destructive inclinations of humankind.

everybody has their opinion on war and if it's good or bad in society. billy pilgrim's opinion on war it not about if it's good or bad but if it's necessary in human life. in the book slaughterhouse 5 billy's psychological and moral traits are shaped by his experience with war and the tralfamadorians

Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, is a postmodern, anti war novel, involving the main character, Billy Pilgrim, and his transportation through the different moments of his life. The timeline of this particular book ranges all the way from when Billy was a small boy and all the way to his death. Because of the book taking place in many different times of Billy’s life and in many places of it, Kurt Vonnegut both hides and reveals truth in it. Many examples of this can be found throughout the events of Billy’s adventures, most notably before and during the fire bombings of Dresden.

Humans are extremely social creatures. People have an unparalleled capacity to empathize and recognize the emotions of others. However, extreme trauma can severely compromise this ability, particularly trauma inflicted by warfare. As a result of his first hand experience with the government 's use of technology in warfare, Billy Pilgrim of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five loses his ability to control his social interactions, becoming apathetic and disconnected with the world around him, a phenomenon not uncommon amongst those who have seen the immediate devastation of modern warfare technology.

Kurt Vonnegut acquaints us with Paul Lazzaro, who is a prisoner of war fascinated by revenge. Lazzaro tells a story about a dog who tried to bite him. Wanting revenge, Lazzaro puts razor sharp springs into a steak and pretends to be friends with the dog. The dog eats the steak, laced with springs, and eventually, blood started coming from the dog’s insides. Lazzaro later says that the sweetest thing in life is revenge.

In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim spends most of his time traveling from present to past, and back and forth. Everyone who met Billy assumed he’d lost his mind or was simply speaking nonsense. However, according to Billy’s story as told by the narrator, there is evidence that suggests there’s a possibility Billy did in fact time travel; Billy’s reaction to the barbershop quartet’s singing during his eighteenth wedding anniversary in 1964, the presence of a framed quote in Billy’s office, and the return of the picture of the woman and the pony. These are instances in which time has repeated itself in a peculiar way that gives rise to the likelihood of Billy’s adventures being true.

In the book SlaughterHouse-Five, the main character Billy Pilgrim, is an anti-hero who jump travels through time and past events in his mind. Billy’s definition of what is going on is that he has “come unstuck in time.” (Slaughterhouse-five 1) The looming question is if the travels that billy experiences are actually true. Could a person actually know what is going to happen before it does, or jump from one moment to the next… no this isn’t the case. Billy is not actually experiencing reality, but instead what Billy is suffering from is a coping mechanism from the condition known as PTSD. Billy uses these jumps into different times, and places from his past to cope with his traumatic stress that he received from the war that he was drafted into.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental disease that develops in those who have experienced a scary or dangerous event and it affects an estimated 6.8% of Americans in their lifetime (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). Post-traumatic stress disorder is also abbreviated as “PTSD.” Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, follows Billy Pilgrim, a World War II soldier, on his adventures through both the war and after the war. Pilgrim believes that he is visited by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore and abducted by them. He also thinks that he is able to “time travel” to different events throughout his own life. Due to his condition of thinking that he is able to time travel, Pilgrim can be said to have PTSD.

From start to finish of Slaughterhouse Five there are many showings that Billy has PTSD. In this book Billy is “unstuck” in time, but I think that is just how the author portrays his PTSD. In the very beginning of the book Kurt Vonnegut tells us “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day” (Vonnegut 23).

When someone believes that it’s possible to time travel and get abducted by aliens, they clearly have a mental disorder. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, though it is a fictitious novel, it contains serious and real content. It has its sadistic humor, but it is truly a war story where the outcomes are not good. The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, is said to be unstuck in time and is abducted by aliens. Though, there is a lot against the reality of that. Billy Pilgrim has a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder. He shows many of the symptoms when showing the audience of his time travel and the abduction by the Tralfamadorians. Vonnegut never officially states whether or not these events are true or not. Much of the research that

Throughout the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim struggles with the hardships that take places all throughout his life. These hardships occur in his family life during World War II and being abducted by aliens from another planet. The misfortunes vary in difficulty, some minor, while some are life and death situations. There are many obstacles that Billy and other men encountered and were faced with, which were separated by every point of life: the past, the present and the future,with the future teaching Billy how to cope with these obstacles.

It should be established before anything else that the author I have chosen, Kurt Vonnegut, was heavily influenced by World War II. The idea of war, along with its devastating effects, gave Vonnegut a rather cynical and twisted view on human nature. This perspective bleeds over onto his writing and can be seen in many of his major and minor works, including one of his most impactful, “Slaughterhouse 5,” in which he uses time travel, alien planets, and other farfetched ideas to describe the physical and emotional consequences of violent acts.

“I did not ask for the things that I’ve been through and I certainly did not ask my mind to paint and repaint the pictures in flashback forms.” Quoted from Michelle Groth, about post traumatic stress disorder. For some it is impossible to run away from their past but for one human, Billy Pilgrim, a World War 2 and Dresden bombing survivor, it is possible. He chooses not to face his experiences and goes into a very strange place. A place where memories do not exist and the normal day-to -day life does not occur. He becomes unstuck in time. Billy faces the consequence and lives in a different reality than everyone else. Vonnegut uses Billy’s experience to show how being unstuck in time made Pilgrim become helpless, powerless, and lack free will.

He travelled through time, experiencing his life in a non linear manner, going as far as calmly undergoing his death, before being transported back in time to the rest of his life. In the author's words Billy Pilgrim wasn't a time traveller, "Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time". The idea of Pilgrim being unstuck in time was introduced early on in the second chapter, setting up the premise for the rest of the novel. The use of 'unstuck' suggests that Pilgrim has been stuck unwillingly beforehand and since he is being unstuck, he has become free. This allows Vonnegut to use time as his own tool, and ignore the the restrictions that come with following a chronological timeline found in the majority of other novels. Vonnegut follows this up with "Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next", making it clear that the character isn't time travelling willingly. Due to this, the plot is nonlinear and oftentimes spastic in the way that the life experiences happen. Billy Pilgrim seems to floating around in the world, following wherever the wind takes him. The plot always follows Pilgrim's character and so, wherever the time takes Billy Pilgrim next, the reader is taken on the whimsical path with