Slaughterhouse-Five Essays: Fate And Free Will In Slaughterhouse Five

Improved Essays
Ivanna Guerrero
English 2
September 9, 2015
Fate and Free Will in “Slaughterhouse-Five” The novel, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, is about a war veteran named Billy Pilgrim who goes through war and at the same time goes back and forward in time to a moment in his life. He went from times he was in war, back to when he was an eye doctor, back to war again, then forward to when he was at home writing to the newspaper, back to war again, and so on. He went through hard times in life and good ones too, but ever since he went to Tralfarmadore he learned that if you can’t change time then free will doesn’t exist. Tralfamadore was a planet three hundred million miles from Earth which in there lived the creatures called Tralfamadorians.
…show more content…
Billy Pilgrim and the Tralfamadorians believe in fate. The Tralfamadorians were the one that taught Billy to accept death. That he can’t change when he dies, he just does because of fate. This affects the story because if he did not believe in fate he would’ve not lived freely, and not cared for himself. He would’ve cared for himself more, since he would want to live longer. He would’ve had a different mindset of the world. For example, in the novel he said, “So it goes” (Vonnegut 140), many times throughout the book. So instead of saying oh well that’s how life goes he would get at least a little upset because his friend died. It would also affect the story because he would’ve died later than he did. He knew when he was going to die because there was this man that promised he was going to kill Billy for revenge. So Billy was going to give a speech to a large audience so he knew that this man was going to send someone to be there ready to kill him. So his bodyguards were surrounding him so that nobody can hurt him, but Billy said this to them, “No, no…It is time for you to go home to your wives and children, and it is time for me to be dead for a little while-and then live again” (Vonnegut 142-143). Then he was killed. So if he would just let the guards protect him then he would’ve died later on. Since he believed that you can’t change time nor death, he decided to die right there because that’s what fate had for …show more content…
This novel is basically wrapped around the ideas of free will and fate. Both ideas are important to the novel. Without these ideas in the book then Billy wouldn’t have died when he did. Also, the Tralfamadorians would probably not even be in the book and if they were then they would try to fix the mistakes they have done like blowing up the whole universe. Everyone has their own opinion if they believe in fate or free will. Do you think your life is made by the choices you make or predetermined by

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Kurt Vonnegut, in his novel, “Slaughterhouse Five” recounts his experiences of World War II through Billy Pilgrim, the main character. Vonnegut’s purpose is to describe his wartime experiences and antiwar view. He adopts a complex and elusive tone in order to successfully engage and entertain his readers. Vonnegut begins his novel in the first person. We are given a first-person point of view in the sections embedded in the first and last chapters of the book.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the reader gets a unique insight on the life and experience of Billy Pilgrim. Billy Pilgrim has gone through unspeakable things. There are three major aspects of Billy Pilgrim’s life that perfectly represent his experience in isolation, and how, or how not it was able to connect him with others. His experiences in the slaughterhouse, on Tralfamadorian, and with his son all answer this very peculiar question. When looking at the question itself, it is clear that there is a correlation with isolation and connection with Billy, however there are different ways to answer it.…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five, the main character Billy discusses death numerous times and how it’s simply a part of life. To further go on, The Tralfamadorians also see death as just another aspect in life, “Now, 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’ (27). This quote talks about how the Tralfamadorians view death and that to them it is irrelevant. Vonnegut uses the phrase “So it goes” throughout the entire novel. By saying this, he is voicing how dying does not matter.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Whether one decides to believe in fate, destiny, free will, or anything else, one thing is always true: people make choices. Every day we make choices. They can be small ones, like choosing to tip five percent more at a restaurant or choosing to wear a green tie over a blue one. But many of the choices a person makes are larger than these, choosing a field to major in, or choosing a spouse, perhaps. Clearly, our choices are important because they determine our character and future, but they are also important because many, if not all, of our choices, directly affect others and the people around them.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Vonnegut shows how Billy has no free will by saying "When Billy got back from his furlough, there were orders for him to go overseas" (32). Billy was an enlisted man and had no choice but to fight in the war, therefore backing up the argument that there is no such thing as free will. The moment is structured that way. No matter what Billy did in his life before getting enlisted, he will always end up going to war. Going along with the structured universe, the aliens inform Billy on how the universe ends.…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    These emotions can also seem to impact Billy’s apparent lack of desire to live. During the war, Vonnegut depicts Billy as isolated, the same way as he is with his family relations from an early age. As well as this , Billy is presented as somewhat dismissive of life and appears to have no desire to survive. This is also noticed by those surrounding him as well as himself.…

    • 2049 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, Billy “has no control over where he is going next” (23) which relates to the theme of life as uncontrollable and unpredictable. Billy cannot control what goes on in his mind just as he cannot control what happens in is life; he has lost control of reality and fantasy. The motif of time plays an important role in the novel. Time is the only way for Billy to somewhat handle what has happened to him.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this way, the novel's structure highlights both the centrality of Billy's war experiences to his life, as well as the profound dislocation and alienation he feels after the war. Slaughterhouse-Five is different from all other stories we have read in that it takes time and settings and combats what is normal. We as the reader are taken on a journey with Billy and it is within that journey that we learn not only about Billy but ourselves and how we are able to relate with his experiences, whether it be…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Truths of Slaughterhouse-Five; How They are Revealed or Hidden There are many places where the truth is hidden and revealed in Slaughterhouse-Five. These truths are what the book is all about, they give it meaning. You might be asking, what is the truth? As most people would agree it is that humankind is predestined to their fate, or maybe that war is a terrible and brutal thing. Without truths, there would be no way for Kurt Vonnegut, the writer of this essay, to make it into an anti war novel.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Davis Thalhuber Mrs. Boston AP Language and Composition 8/25/2017 Slaughterhouse Five Essay: Structure (flashback, chronological): The structure of Slaughterhouse-Five is written in a flashback where the main character, Billy Pilgrim, goes back and forth of when he was apart of the bombing of Dresden. Billy Pilgrim has PTSD, in which he goes from his present life of being a successful optometrist while having two children too his past life of joining the army and being captured at a prison camp in Dresden.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Although told in an oftentimes quirky and odd manner, Slaughterhouse-Five gives an intriguing perspective on World War II and the lasting effects that it had on the men who fought through it and went on to live out their lives in “normalcy”. The author, Kurt Vonnegut, uses irony, dark humor, and spontaneity to create an unorthodox depiction of the life of one of these said soldiers, Billy Pilgrim, the main character in the novel. In this light, he uses Pilgrim’s experiences in World War II to demonstrate the true nature of war to those who were fortunate enough to never experience it for themselves. The novel’s main theme, the destructiveness of war both internally and externally, is portrayed through Vonnegut’s illustration of the destruction…

    • 1518 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut is able to unify a non-linear narrative by using time travel. Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut’s main character, is constantly traveling back and forth his life experiences “paying random visits to all events in between” (SF 23). Consequently, the reader sees Billy’s life as a series of episodes without any chronological nature. This in essence is the structure of the novel, presenting us the traditional beginning, middle, and end in an untraditional manner. The first piece of information that is given about Billy is that he has "come unstuck in time" (SF23).…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    World War II proves to be one of the most appalling events in history. Kurt Vonnegut unintentionally takes advantage of the war’s atrocities in his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. Billy Pilgrim, a former prisoner of war and survivor of the Dresden bombing, comes unstuck in time, meaning he can travel between moments in his life. His condition hints at instability as he also meets aliens, or the Tralfamadorians, who live on a utopian planet. He relays the events and stories of the people he encounters throughout his journey.…

    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Conclusion Slaughterhouse-Five has a lot happening that will make you say ‘what?’ but that’s because Vonnegut wanted to get the point across that war does not make sense and by using science fiction, non-linear time, and own personal reflection we understand the workings of Vonnegut’s brain and how Billy Pilgrim dealt with his post-traumatic stress disorder. This novel is a classic and the narrator even says that: “People aren 't supposed to look back. I 'm certainly not going to do it anymore.…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Billy had the uncontrollable ability to jump through time, which is another Element of Postmodernism. The Time Element of Postmodernism is explaining how “time moves, usually differently or in a strange way.” Billy Pilgrim travels through time throughout Slaughterhouse Five, all the way from World War II, his childhood, and the future. Just to experience events that happen within his life. The way Vonnegut uses this element is really strange, in which the main character cannot tell when or where he is going to teleport to, but the story continues as if he just finished what he left off, whereas he still had an unfinished story.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays