Tralfamadorian Analysis

The Tralfamadorians also make a point to billy about Earthlings which also shows how Billy psychological traits of only looking at the moments worth looking at. The Tralfamadorians state “That’s one things Earthlings might learn to do…..ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones”. BIlly Pilgrim is in World War two throughout most of the book. He is beaten down in this war and belittled completely by both that of his own fellow American comrades as well as German and English soldiers as well. We see Billy never so much as ever get mad as these moments, sometimes he is sad in them but never becomes fed up with life. Billy knows that these are just the bad moments and due to free will he cannot change them. Billy knows that by closing

Billy never in the book tries to stop a bad moment because of no free will. Kurt Vonnegut uses a phrase throughout the book to show this idea. The phrase is “ So it goes”. Vonnegut uses this phrase after many situations such as people dieing because in life thats jus how it goes essentially. You cannot change life, it happens and you have to live with it. So it goes Billy dies. So it goes Paul Lazzaro kills him. So it goes the plane he’s on crashes and he knows it is going to crash. So it goes the people of Dresden are bombed. So it goes Billy is caught in a war. Life goes and we cannot question it. We can only live in the moments we get. Some of these moments will be bad, life will be lost. But you must live as Billy does and not question these events because there is no changing them. Even through reliving these moments Billy could still not change them. Tralfamador’s culture shapes Billys entire outlook on life. There way of life rubs off on Billy. No free will controls Billys whole life. He is just a man with his memories stuck on shuffle not sure what he’s getting next, but never questioning the moment he does get only living that moment as if its the last moment he will