No Need for Powers: Billy Pilgrim is a Hero in Slaughterhouse Five
Heroes in a narrative are not like Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman but a leader who has courage, intelligence and good intentions. Billy Pilgrim, the novel’s protagonist is labeled the anti hero because he may not show all the qualities of a hero. Yet, many fall oblivious to the fact that no hero is perfect. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, there are several obvious candidates, but Billy is not one of them. However, through juxtaposition of illusion and reality, Vonnegut portrays Billy as a hero, ignoring society’s archetype. In several occasions, Billy is taken advantage of in the war, and he manifests so much patience and never complains to someone like a hero. He was often “cold, hungry, embarrassed, incompetent. He could scarcely distinguish between sleep and wakefulness now” (34). Even though Billy is not in the best place …show more content…
When Billy and other American soldiers were kept prisoners during the war, the Germans had them in tight boxcars and under the circumstances the “human beings in there were excreting into steel helmets, which were passed to the people at the ventilators, who dumped them. Billy was a dumper” (70). Once again, Billy cannot do anything about it so he does not. It seems a bit funny that he just happens to be the dumper because of where he is but that is just another sacrifice that he makes. When being captured by the Tralfamadorians “Billy’s will was paralyzed by a zap gun aimed at him from one of the portholes... only then did Billy's brain start working again” (76). After his supposed abduction, Billy begins to think of life in a different light; he starts to accept the things he cannot change. Billy comes to the realization that free will does not exist and he learns this when imprisoned by
Heroes in a narrative are not like Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman but a leader who has courage, intelligence and good intentions. Billy Pilgrim, the novel’s protagonist is labeled the anti hero because he may not show all the qualities of a hero. Yet, many fall oblivious to the fact that no hero is perfect. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, there are several obvious candidates, but Billy is not one of them. However, through juxtaposition of illusion and reality, Vonnegut portrays Billy as a hero, ignoring society’s archetype. In several occasions, Billy is taken advantage of in the war, and he manifests so much patience and never complains to someone like a hero. He was often “cold, hungry, embarrassed, incompetent. He could scarcely distinguish between sleep and wakefulness now” (34). Even though Billy is not in the best place …show more content…
When Billy and other American soldiers were kept prisoners during the war, the Germans had them in tight boxcars and under the circumstances the “human beings in there were excreting into steel helmets, which were passed to the people at the ventilators, who dumped them. Billy was a dumper” (70). Once again, Billy cannot do anything about it so he does not. It seems a bit funny that he just happens to be the dumper because of where he is but that is just another sacrifice that he makes. When being captured by the Tralfamadorians “Billy’s will was paralyzed by a zap gun aimed at him from one of the portholes... only then did Billy's brain start working again” (76). After his supposed abduction, Billy begins to think of life in a different light; he starts to accept the things he cannot change. Billy comes to the realization that free will does not exist and he learns this when imprisoned by