The Futility of Free Will in Slaughterhouse-Five
There are no war heroes in Slaughterhouse-Five. Throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim, the man lost in time, is portrayed as an ignorant soldier wandering about World War II Europe. Other characters such as Paul Lazzaro or Roland Weary are too self-absorbed to understand that they are in war and distract themselves by bullying other soldiers. Even Edgar Derby, who was elected to become the leader for the American prisoners, who had the courage to stand up to a Nazi-American, ended up dead when he was caught stealing a teapot after the bombing of Dresden. These men, these ordinary men, were thrust into a war they did not understand and, in the end, paid the price for it. Their destiny was not theirs to command. …show more content…
Abducted and displayed for show, Billy is able to learn the Tralfamadorian, plunger shaped aliens with hands for heads, understanding that time, as a linear concept, does not exist. Instead, the Tralfamadorians live in the fourth dimension, and because of their immersion in a greater dimension than our own, they understand that all moments of time exist at the same time and occur endlessly. This understanding of time, adopted by Billy, is why the phrase “So it goes” is used so often in the novel. The phrase, used whenever there is a death in the novel—no matter the importance or if it was a concept, shows a resignation of his own free will. For if everything that will occur has already occurred right now, then not a single creature, human or alien, truly has free
There are no war heroes in Slaughterhouse-Five. Throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim, the man lost in time, is portrayed as an ignorant soldier wandering about World War II Europe. Other characters such as Paul Lazzaro or Roland Weary are too self-absorbed to understand that they are in war and distract themselves by bullying other soldiers. Even Edgar Derby, who was elected to become the leader for the American prisoners, who had the courage to stand up to a Nazi-American, ended up dead when he was caught stealing a teapot after the bombing of Dresden. These men, these ordinary men, were thrust into a war they did not understand and, in the end, paid the price for it. Their destiny was not theirs to command. …show more content…
Abducted and displayed for show, Billy is able to learn the Tralfamadorian, plunger shaped aliens with hands for heads, understanding that time, as a linear concept, does not exist. Instead, the Tralfamadorians live in the fourth dimension, and because of their immersion in a greater dimension than our own, they understand that all moments of time exist at the same time and occur endlessly. This understanding of time, adopted by Billy, is why the phrase “So it goes” is used so often in the novel. The phrase, used whenever there is a death in the novel—no matter the importance or if it was a concept, shows a resignation of his own free will. For if everything that will occur has already occurred right now, then not a single creature, human or alien, truly has free