Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
An essay on character development
An essay on character development
Leadership
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: An essay on character development
Many people believe that Billy is a criminal and only looks out for himself. But in my research, he took only what he needed not wanted. Billy relates to leadership and legacy because he always kept character. He never took anything without it having some life-saving qualities he needed. Maybe sometimes he wanted a something else, but that wasn’t in the question, so he forgot about it all together. During when Billy was born, there was famish in Ireland and so his mother immigrated with her son to America for a better life. They moved to New Mexico and lived in a community with many Hispanics around. The Hispanics would day that Billy was always smiling and laughing. When Billy’s mother died, he had to make some money so that he could live. So, he worked in a couple of salons so he could gain money for food and water. He was at a bar, and shot and “bully” that always got his way. Billy shot him because he went too far. He moved to Arizona where to Irish immigrants made a slaughter house with no competitors. No one ever got in their way. If anyone did, they would come face-to-face with them, and their pistols. But then came along a British man who was wealthy, and filled with determination. The men made a plan to get rid of this British man who came and thought that he could just take everything from them. Since …show more content…
But instead of putting charges on Billy, the British man offered him a job. Billy took this offer as a way to move forward and not go on as a criminal. The British man when to go settle this feud with Irish immigrants that were competition but, when as he was riding towards their factory, the Irish men shot him and his horse. They put the British man and his horse in a ditch. Many days later Billy went to go search for his friend but only came to find 2 carcasses. This enraged Billy so much, that he went to go kill the men, but the sheriff would let him. So, he killed the sheriff
The film gives today’s viewers a historical perspective on how the use of ethnic stereotypes reinforced Griffins theme of nationalism. As stated by Dr.Keeling, this film came about a time of war when there was a need to rally and a need to belong. Griffin used his film Martyrs of the Alamo as an outlet to promote the need for nationalism in the United States. Griffin focuses on creating this feeling of fear when Americans and Mexicans interact in certain scenes. Through out the film this reoccurring theme of fear is seen in many of the battle scenes. One of the most striking scenes is during the battle between the Mexican soldiers and the Americans in the Alamo. Throughout the shot we see both sides rushing toward each other firing their weapons and there is a cloudiness from the dust. As this fight is going on we see a little blonde and blue e...
One, he gives us a point of reference for someone in his difficult and turbulent time period. He was a (presumably) rich Mexican that saw the injustice of how the white American settlers treated the Mexicans that lived near them. He shows us another side of the story, beside the story that the victors would’ve shared.
Though he was able to escape war unharmed, Billy seems to be mentally unstable. In fact, his nightmares in the German boxcar at the prisoners of war (POW) camp indicate that he is experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): “And now there was an acrimonious madrigal, with parts sung in all quarters of the car. Nearly everybody, seemingly, had an atrocity story of something Billy Pilgrim had done to him in his sleep. Everybody told Billy Pilgrim to keep the hell away” (79). Billy’s PTSD is also previously hinted when he panics at the sound of sirens: “A siren went off, scared the hell out of him. He was expecting World War III at any time. The siren was simply announcing high noon” (57). The most prominent symptom of PTSD, however, is reliving disturbing past experiences which is done to an even more extreme extent with Billy as Slaughterhouse-Five’s chronology itself correlates with this symptom. Billy’s “abduction” and conformity to Tralfamadorian beliefs seem to be his method of managing his insecurity and PTSD. He uses the Tralfamadorian motto “so it goes” as a coping mechanism each time he relives a tragic event. As Billy struggles with the conflict of PTSD, the work’s chronological order is altered, he starts to believe
to it because his fate did not lead him there. Billy applied the fact that he had to accept
Billy has no control over his being in a time warp. In the midst of his life in New York he will suddenly find himself Tralfamadore; he has become "unstuck in time" ( 22). The Tralfamadorians eventually show Billy the important moments of his life, but they do not always show them in sequence. They do this so Billy can fully understand the true reasons for and the importance of the events.
...erson & by not doing everything that his parents said he was able to find out the truth which I think, in the end would have made his relationship with his parents much stronger. Billy was very restricted & confined by the expectations placed on him by his family & as well as society & because of this was not able to express himself or find his own personal happiness but through dance he was able to discover who he really is & what he loves & by pursuing it he became a much stronger person, it even enabled him to stand up to his father in showing him how much he loves dance & in doing so also stood up to society & gender stereotypes, this made Billy a much stronger person, throughout the movie it also shows how Billy is able to make a better personal relationship with his father & his brother Tony who he grows closer to as he becomes his own person through dance.
The main event that leads Billy to all his confusion is the time he spent in Dresden and witnessed the fire-bombings that constantly pop in his head along with pictures of all the innocent people Billy saw that fled to Dresden the "safe spot" from the war before the bombing. When Billy sees the faces of the innocent children it represents his fear of the situation. Billy can't acknowledge the fact that they were innocent and they were killed by Americans, Americans soldiers just like himself. The biggest issue Billy cannot come to grasp with is why the bombings took place. That question has no answer; it's just something that happened that Billy couldn't get over. During all Billy's travels back to Dresden he couldn't change what had really happened there although that was the closure he was looking for. Dresden purely represents Bill's past and fears of the truth about what happened.
This shows that death, to Billy, is hollow and inevitable. He is used to the emotional suffering so he is just casually dealing with it, which ties it back to the anti-war theme. The use of the satirical motif represents how war has taken something such as death, which is so drastic and made it so meaningless. In other words, he is just going through the motions without thinking too much because he is physically and mentally drained. Vonnegut shows that war does not only affect the soldier but also his family.
In “Fighter,” Billy is insecure because of his failures in life. He believes that he is not able to accomplish anything because he is a failure. His insecurity holds him back,
Billy is used to showing that everything happens because of fate. As a prisoner, Billy has no control over his day to day life. While Billy is in Dresden, the city is bombed, because of luck, only Billy and a few others survive the bombing in a slaughterhouse. The people of Tralfamadore tell Billy that humans do not understand time because everything they do is in singular progression.
“The third bullet was for the filthy flamingo, who stopped dead center in the road when the lethal bee buzzed past his ear. Billy stood there politely, giving the marksman another chance.” This clearly illustrated the child-like person Billy is. Instead of duck and cover, Billy stands there as if he were playing a board game he didn’t want to play and in protest did not move his player. He doesn’t truly grasp the distraught situation he is in and he most certainly doesn’t comprehend it. By not looking out for his own interest he becomes an infantile creature depending on the civil duties of others.
Despite the initial idea that this story will have a happy ending for Billy and the wolf, life and its trials change the ending dramatically. McCarthy said in the quote that “Nothing can be dispensed with”. This is a vital lesson of the story; every hardship and issue that had to be faced led to another vital step in Billy’s journey. Without the death of the wolf, he would not have wandered and met the people he did. He may have returned home sooner and been killed alongside his parents. Later on, if his family hadn’t have died, he would not have traveled again into Mexico, where he would save a young girl, learn even more, and lose his brother. While the events that took place were not pleasing, they were necessary. That’s what this quote is trying to teach; that every step in life, good or bad, must take place to reach the end goal. “We have no way to tell what might stand and what might fall” (McCarthy). This is entirely correct. If Billy had known what was in store for him and his brother in Mexico, they may not have ever traveled there. They didn’t know the outcome, though, and even though the end wasn’t appealing, it was necessary for both of them to just live their lives and face whatever came their way. This quote is mainly showing that life can’t be predicted, only lived, and The Crossing on proves
...ho never recovered after experiencing the death of his entire family. Through substance abuse, affairs with Risa Walker, and his use of memory to escape the reality that his family is no more, he proves to be the least successful character in the novel at coping with death. The new questions then become whether or not one ever has such access in order to pull through grief, or, does someone even want to? Reading about Billy he shows us how we should not cope with death, we learn that what is needed at times like this is someone by your side, someone you can lean on, and someone to love you, all of which Billy really does not have. Most human beings do not have that someone to help them cope with death so the responsibility of moving on then falls on them. It is up to them to decide if they want to move on or live the rest of their lives replaying that tragic event.
Billy is placed in numerous egregious incidences during his time in World War II, observing the firebombing of Dresden and the deaths of his fellow soldiers in by German soldiers. An eye, one central characteristic of the Tralfamadorians, is symbolic of knowledge and sight. Just like Jesus had divine spiritual knowledge and sought to spread Christianity, Billy wished to spread the peculiar teachings Tralfamadorians. Billy’s belief in Tralfamadorians allows him to make sense of the tumultuous events in his life, so he wants other individuals to follow the Tralfamadorian way. Vonnegut also establishes that although may hold sacred spiritual knowledge although Billy possesses great spiritual knowledge, he still has human characteristic, so he is still subject to death--just like Jesus
Billy Hayes becomes desperate at the end of the movie. He realizes that he will never be released and so when he finds the money his girlfriend hid for him, he is moved to try and escape. He tries to bribe Hamidon to let him out. Hamidon takes the money but takes him to an empty room where he is planning on beating Billy. He takes off his gun and puts down his stick. He starts beating Billy. He stops and begins to pull his pants down. Billy seizes this opportunity and pushes him, knocking his head into a peg on the wall killing him. He then puts on Hamidon’s clothes, takes his gun and leaves the prison. He is finally out and makes it across the border into Greece.