In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim follows a non-chronological journey while being “Unstuck in time”. As Billy is captured and held as a prisoner in a POW camp and then taken to Dresden during its bombing, he experiences many atrocities. Once the bombing was over, Billy and the other soldiers are put to work, digging up the diseased bodies of those who did not survive. After the war, Billy has trouble returning to his normal life, as he spends some time in a mental institution, gets married to a random woman, has kids, and takes a career as an optometrist, all unwillingly. Billy becomes convinced that an alien race called the “Tralfamadorians” abducted and introduce him into this different theory of life, time, and space.
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It’s suction end and stick like frame can be compared to a plunger almost, as a way for Kurt Vonnegut to show that the more Billy thinks about the Tralfamadorians, the more he is sucked of out reality into a clearer state of mind. Similar to a plunger, as it removes waste to be able to flush, leading to clearer and clean water. There are a lot of similarities to what happens to Billy in Tralfamadore and what happens to his during the war. When the Nazi’s made Billy strip from his clothing, they made his feel like less of a man and humiliated him. But when the tralfamadorians make Billy strip at the Zoo, Vonnegut writes, “They suppose that he was a splendid specimen. This had a pleasant effect on Billy. He began to enjoy his body for the first time.”(pg 144). This concludes that Billy’s mind is trained to use this as a way to cope with what happened to him under Nazi influence. To that same extent, the Nazi’s also give Billy women’s jacket, depriving him from his masculinity, but when Billy is told he has manly features by the Tralfamadorians, his confidence is yet restored under the Tralfamadorian influence. Another coping mechanism the Tralfamadorians give Billy is their idea of freewill and fate. Billy feels a lot of guilt for surviving the war, but the idea of destiny comforts Billy as a reasoning for not being mad at something inalterable. In that way, the Tralfamadorians can release Billy from his …show more content…
Both works have many somber and shocking elements, such as the inhumane treatment by the Germans, the job of burning dead corpses, and the sight of Dresden itself, but it mainly focuses on the absurdity of war and the effects of P.T.S.D. For example, the death of Edgar Derby. Edgar Derby is shot to death by the Germans because of a petty “theft” of a small figure he finds and wants to send home to his family. Another absurdity includes the amount of care packages these soldiers get and keep all to themselves. The narrative of Slaughterhouse-Five focuses more on the confusing moments of war that make no rational sense, then the trauma and horrors, to create a perceptive counterpart to show how terrible war can be, despite the combat. War causes Billy to create an fictional world to escape from his troubles. It destroyed his ability to differentiate reality and fantasy. Throughout the book, Vonnegut wants to show the mental and emotional damage war delivers. War is an awful experience, and both the book and the movie show that through a psychedelic progression that led to Billy’s
It’s suction end and stick like frame can be compared to a plunger almost, as a way for Kurt Vonnegut to show that the more Billy thinks about the Tralfamadorians, the more he is sucked of out reality into a clearer state of mind. Similar to a plunger, as it removes waste to be able to flush, leading to clearer and clean water. There are a lot of similarities to what happens to Billy in Tralfamadore and what happens to his during the war. When the Nazi’s made Billy strip from his clothing, they made his feel like less of a man and humiliated him. But when the tralfamadorians make Billy strip at the Zoo, Vonnegut writes, “They suppose that he was a splendid specimen. This had a pleasant effect on Billy. He began to enjoy his body for the first time.”(pg 144). This concludes that Billy’s mind is trained to use this as a way to cope with what happened to him under Nazi influence. To that same extent, the Nazi’s also give Billy women’s jacket, depriving him from his masculinity, but when Billy is told he has manly features by the Tralfamadorians, his confidence is yet restored under the Tralfamadorian influence. Another coping mechanism the Tralfamadorians give Billy is their idea of freewill and fate. Billy feels a lot of guilt for surviving the war, but the idea of destiny comforts Billy as a reasoning for not being mad at something inalterable. In that way, the Tralfamadorians can release Billy from his …show more content…
Both works have many somber and shocking elements, such as the inhumane treatment by the Germans, the job of burning dead corpses, and the sight of Dresden itself, but it mainly focuses on the absurdity of war and the effects of P.T.S.D. For example, the death of Edgar Derby. Edgar Derby is shot to death by the Germans because of a petty “theft” of a small figure he finds and wants to send home to his family. Another absurdity includes the amount of care packages these soldiers get and keep all to themselves. The narrative of Slaughterhouse-Five focuses more on the confusing moments of war that make no rational sense, then the trauma and horrors, to create a perceptive counterpart to show how terrible war can be, despite the combat. War causes Billy to create an fictional world to escape from his troubles. It destroyed his ability to differentiate reality and fantasy. Throughout the book, Vonnegut wants to show the mental and emotional damage war delivers. War is an awful experience, and both the book and the movie show that through a psychedelic progression that led to Billy’s