' PTSD In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

Slaughterhouse Five is a novel written by Kurt Vonnegut about a World War II veteran unstuck in time. Billy Pilgrim is dislodged in time, experiencing events of his life like a playlist of memories set on shuffle. Most of the book is centered on Billy’s time in the war, his time on the alien world of Tralfamadore, and his life in between. While reading Slaughterhouse Five, the reader meets a version of Billy who has experienced different moments of his life many times over. While the story is pure science fiction, transfer the theme to the real world, and it appears that Billy Pilgrim is actually suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a symptom of his witness of the firebombing of the city of Dresden. The diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder explains why Billy is seeing flashbacks of his service in the war, his recounting of the length of time he believes to have spent in a Zoo on the planet Tralfamadore with a movie star Montana Wildhack, and Billy’s complete disregard for his own health when found by his daughter in a freezing home while dressed in a bathrobe with bare feet. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is …show more content…
During this time, he is confined to a cage with movie star named Montana Wildhack. The Tralfamadorians can perceive the 4th dimension, time, and view any moment from the universe's birth to it’s death. Coincidentally, they are the beings to rationalized Billy’s “time traveling”. “I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.” (p 41) An all knowing being brings ration to Billy’s insanity. With the little green men, and Billy’s hot, little movie star, Billy’s descend into madness is rapidly