Billy Pilgrim: The unanswered question

Remember: We live in a bright world. A world where you make your destiny, you create happiness.

In the first pages of the book, Vonnegut apologizes for his book and justifies his "short and jumbled and jangled" novel by saying that "There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." When I read this I thought that I would be reading about the war, not about the misery of life. In the beginning of Chapter 5 Billy's life is in an abyss. Since the idea of time is nonexistent, it is safe to say that Billy's entire life is miserable. The entire chapter has a sad connotation: "'My God, my God... 'It's the Children's Crusade.'" says a British officer when he sees the young faces in the war. "She upset Billy simply by being his mother...Billy didn't really like life at all." These two excerpts represent the negative and hopeless feeling that the novel is acquiring. When the Trafalmadorians took Billy, I thought that he would return and live life to its fullest, make the best of it. However, it appears that when he came back he was so affected by the Trafalmadorian way, that he became insane. The Trafalmadorians have a philosophy of acceptance. "There is no beginning, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects."

Why do Earthlings believe? It is our nature. In the movie Finding Nemo the character Dory has short-term memory loss, however, she is always optimistic and never stops believing in a bright future. She represents the positive side of the human race, she represents the opposite of what Billy is now going through.

In this chapter we follow Billy around the life that he has, however, instead of explaining the character, it brings about questions. When will we understand Billy? One thing was clarified in this chapter, the meaning of the phrase “so it goes”. Given to understand that Billy and/or Vonnegut might be the narrator, we can infer that the theory of acceptance the Trafalmadorians have was transferred onto them. The “aliens” believe that death is no more permanent than any other moment. “So it goes” represents the passing of a person’s life into a new phase if you will. It suppresses the devastation of the horrors that they saw in war.

Slaughterhouse-Five offers is an odd book. It constantly poses questions, without answering those previously positioned. It depicts life in misery and life in sheer joy. It has made me reflect about my own belief system. I have found that to help myself remain optimistic, I must put myself in the shoes of a Trafalmadorian and “…ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.”