An absurdist novel Slaughter house- Five depicts the atrocities of man through the struggles of Billy Pilgrim whom is attempting to live with the trauma of both his childhood and his experiences within the war. As the embodiment of the common man, Billy is constantly dealing with the abuse and cruelty of man. These abusers are clearly used to depict the general abusive nature of man. Although Billy Pilgrim attempts to lead a normal life after experiencing the atrocities, his bouts of mental instability and the time travel induced by deep seated trauma point to man’s inability to purge himself of the effects of man’s inhumanity.
It is evident that Billy Pilgrim suffers from a mental disorder, such as PTSD induced psychosis caused by the trauma …show more content…
The book served as a rough draft that he could build on and use to escape his everyday reality when he couldn’t handle what the day entailed. Billy then comes across a magazine “which was called Midnight Pussycats, promised that [Montana Wildhack] was wearing a cement overcoat under thirty fathoms of saltwater in San Pedro bay” (Vonnegut 204). This missing porn star was a perfect piece to bring together Billy’s layout of his fabricated life, weaving Montana into his make believe world where he is escaping to cope. Allowing Billy to detach himself from the harsh reality and to allow himself to be in his own reality in which he feels more in control …show more content…
Eventually Billy cracks and starts to display other symptoms, one’s that he cannot simply explain as time traveling. Billy starts to find himself weeping, for no apparent reason at all, hoping it would relieve him of this oddity “he was [placed] under doctor’s orders to take a nap every day.” (Vonnegut 61). It is clear he is suffering from a form of mental trauma leaving a residual mark on his psyche. One of the most evident symptoms we see Billy is this frequent weeping William states “coincides with shell shock symptoms or disorders resulting from war-induced trauma” (3). These bouts of weeping have caused Billy so much distress he had to check with his doctor to see if there was anything that could be done to solve the issue: Leading to this daily requirement of napping daily, taking time out of both his professional and personal life. As Billy gets older his lack of ability to function in day to day like becomes all the more evident as when his daughter, Barbara, finds him one day he is “barefoot, and still in his pajamas and a bathrobe, though it was late in the afternoon. His bare feet were blue and ivory” (Vonnegut 29). Billy has let himself sit in his freezing basement to the point his feet resemble those of a corpses. John Tilton has Vonnegut’s “answer to Barbara’s question- ‘Father, Father, Father- what are we going to do with you?’… that nothing can
It is evident that Billy Pilgrim suffers from a mental disorder, such as PTSD induced psychosis caused by the trauma …show more content…
The book served as a rough draft that he could build on and use to escape his everyday reality when he couldn’t handle what the day entailed. Billy then comes across a magazine “which was called Midnight Pussycats, promised that [Montana Wildhack] was wearing a cement overcoat under thirty fathoms of saltwater in San Pedro bay” (Vonnegut 204). This missing porn star was a perfect piece to bring together Billy’s layout of his fabricated life, weaving Montana into his make believe world where he is escaping to cope. Allowing Billy to detach himself from the harsh reality and to allow himself to be in his own reality in which he feels more in control …show more content…
Eventually Billy cracks and starts to display other symptoms, one’s that he cannot simply explain as time traveling. Billy starts to find himself weeping, for no apparent reason at all, hoping it would relieve him of this oddity “he was [placed] under doctor’s orders to take a nap every day.” (Vonnegut 61). It is clear he is suffering from a form of mental trauma leaving a residual mark on his psyche. One of the most evident symptoms we see Billy is this frequent weeping William states “coincides with shell shock symptoms or disorders resulting from war-induced trauma” (3). These bouts of weeping have caused Billy so much distress he had to check with his doctor to see if there was anything that could be done to solve the issue: Leading to this daily requirement of napping daily, taking time out of both his professional and personal life. As Billy gets older his lack of ability to function in day to day like becomes all the more evident as when his daughter, Barbara, finds him one day he is “barefoot, and still in his pajamas and a bathrobe, though it was late in the afternoon. His bare feet were blue and ivory” (Vonnegut 29). Billy has let himself sit in his freezing basement to the point his feet resemble those of a corpses. John Tilton has Vonnegut’s “answer to Barbara’s question- ‘Father, Father, Father- what are we going to do with you?’… that nothing can