Billy Pilgrim as a Christ Figure in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse Five

3080 Words7 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on slaughterhouse five

Billy Pilgrim as a Christ Figure in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse Five

After reading the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., I found my self in a sense of blankness. The question I had to ask myself was, "Poo-tee-weet?"(Vonnegut p. 215). Yet, the answer to my question, according to Vonnegut was, "So it goes"(Vonnegut p.214). This in fact would be the root of my problems in trying to grasp the character of Billy Pilgrim and the life, in which he leads throughout the novel. The pilgrimage that Billy ventures upon is one of mass confusion, running with insanity, finally followed by sanctuary, if layed out in a proper time order sequence. Billy is a victim, prophet, survivor, as well as a firm example of innocence and inspiration. The answer man in a society searching for answers. He is the new prophet. Yet, can Billy pilgrim be compared to the, "Savior", Himself? Is Billy molded after Christ? Aren't we all prophets, if we are children of God? Is Billy a living testament of a new religion? These are the questions that need to be examined in order to fully understand the essence behind the character of Billy Pilgrim.

The first area that should be examined is the aspect of the pursuit of the acquired knowledge of being. Billy, who believes in the concept of destiny, without the use of free will, received this lesson from the aliens on Tralfamadorian. Meanwhile, Jesus Christ gained his views supposedly from the creator Himself, by being the Son of the God. Yet, the creator who controls all of life and knows all is extremely comparable to the citizens of Tralfamadorian. These four dimensional beings can see time from beginning to end in any particular order and play a godlike role in existing by seein...

... middle of paper ...

... Billy was to keep the time sequence of the universe in stable order. God touched the two men; Jesus led by the Creator, while Billy was a follower of science and time. Which god is the true God and from that which man is the Christ? Vonnegut's Christ is of the modern gospel and is a very convincing prophet. The idea is debatable either way and shall be argued for quite sometime.

Works Cited

Martin, Robert A. "Slaughterhouse-Five: Vonnegut's Domed Universe". Carrollton:

Notes on Contemporary Literature, 1987 March, 17:2, p.5-8.

Mustazza, Leonard. Forever Pursuing Genesis: The Myth of Eden in the Novels of Kurt

Vonnegut. Toronto: Bucknell University Press, 1990. p. 102-115.

New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Nashville: National Publishing

Company, 1968.

Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dell Publishing Co. 1982.

Show More
Related

  • Reality And Fictionism In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slaughterhouse-Five is a story of Billy Pilgrim 's capture by the Nazi Germans during the last years of World War II. Throughout the narrative, excerpts of Billy’s life are portrayed from his pre-war self to his post-war insanity. Billy is able to move both forward and backwards through his life in a random cycle of events. Living the dull life of a 1950s optometrist in Ilium, New York, he is the lover of a provocative woman on the planet Tralfamadore, and simultaneously an American prisoner of war in Nazi Germany. While I agree with Christopher Lehmann-Haupt that Slaughterhouse-Five effectively combines fact and fiction, I argue that the book is more centralized around coping.

    Read More

  • Slaughterhouse Five: Billy Pilgrim and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

    1566 Words  | 4 Pages

    Within the novel Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, the character Billy Pilgrim claims to have come “unstuck” in time. Having survived through being a Prisoner of War and the destruction of Dresden during World War II, and having been a prisoner used to clear away debris of the destruction, there can be little doubt that Pilgrim’s mental state was unstable. Furthermore, it may be concluded that Pilgrim, due to the effects of having been a Prisoner of War, and having been witness to the full magnitude of destruction, suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which caused him to review the events over and over during the course of his life. In order to understand how these factors, the destruction of Dresden and ‘PTSD’, came to make Billy Pilgrim “unstuck” in time, one must review over the circumstances surrounding those events.

    Read More

  • Billy Pilgrim's Coping Mechanism for PTSD in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

    1243 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim becomes “unstuck” in time. The question here is, why? The fact of the matter is that he does not actually begin to time-travel. Billy “becomes unstuck” as a coping mechanism to deal with his traumatic experiences during the war. Billy attempts to reorganize his life’s events and cope with a disorder known as post traumatic stress (PTSD).

    Read More

  • Worldviews In Conflict Pearcey

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    As society continues to change, it is important for Christians to realize that they must respond in new and different ways. The original publisher, Tindale House, published this essay as an informative measure while Baker Academic uses this essay as a way to teach how to evaluate a specific style of writing. This essay's purpose is to not only be a source of information, but also an essay that can be evaluated in order to learn about a specific style of writing.

    Read More

  • Slaughterhouse-Five and the Psychological Consequences of War

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    Billy Pilgrim time travels to various moments in his life at random, which suggests he has no power over his mind and the memories that haunt him. He “is spastic in time, (and) has no control over where he is going next” (Vonnegut 43), as he struggles to make sense of his past. Billy’s ability to remember events in an erratic sequence, mirrors the happenings of war. War is sudden, fast paced, and filled with unexpected twists and turns. Billy cannot forget what he experienced during his time as a soldier, and in turn his mind subconsciously imitates this hectic quality of war. This behavior proves that although the war is over, “psychologically, Billy has never fully left” (Vees-Gulani). For many soldiers, especially those who were prisoners of war (POW), it is inevitable that their mind will not be like it once was (Vees-Gulani).

    Read More

  • The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...elp the working middle class from falling into poverty or to help the working poor rise out of poverty. Furthermore the working poor themselves lack the knowledge and power to demand reform. David Shipler says it best when he writes, “Relief will come, if at all, in an amalgam that recognizes both the society’s obligation through government and business, and the individual’s obligation through labor and family —and the commitment of both society and individual.” (Shipler 5786-5788) It is time for America to open its eyes and see the invisible working poor.

    Read More

  • Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five as an Antiwar Novel

    2286 Words  | 5 Pages

    When Vonnegut created Billy Pilgrim, he made Billy subject to the experience of the war. In fact, Billy experiences it almost. exactly the same as Vonnegut himself had, including the experiences of being a POW and in the firebombing of Dresden. The. But in Billy's case, Vonnegut writes it with.

    Read More

  • Billy Pilgrim as a Saint or Nutcase in Slaughterhouse Five

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    Billy has a history of mental problems he has been institutionalized twice. The first time was when he father died this was while he was in training, before he went off to war. The second time was when he came back from the war. Plus he had the head injury from the plane crash. He only started talking about the Tralfamadorians after the plane. And it's odd that every thing about the Tralfamadorians is from those good old Kilgore Trout novels. Now remember Billy first started to read Trout's novels when he committed himself, this was second time he was in the nut house it was after the war. The whole notion of time, the zoo, even the looks of the creatures were all in Trout's novels.

    Read More

  • Futile Search for Answers in Slaughterhouse Five

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book, Slaughter House-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is based on the main character named Billy Pilgrim who is a little "lost" in the head. Billy is always traveling to different parts of his life and rarely in the present state. Throughout the book Billy mainly travels back and forth to three big times in his life. In each different time period of Billy's life he is in a different place; his present state is in a town called Illium and his "travels" are to Dresden and Tralfamadore. When Billy is in Illium he is suppose to have a "normal" life; he is married, has two children, and works as an optometrist. Then Billy travels back to Dresden where he was stationed in the last years of WWII and witnessed the horrible bombing. When Billy travels to Tralfamadore he is in an "imaginary" state, everything that happens to him is more like a dream. Through Billy's travels in time he shows that he is striving to find meaning in the events that happened in his life that he is afraid to acknowledge. As Billy says himself, "All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist," (1) this just proves even further that fact that Billy cannot ever forget any event in his life.

    Read More

  • Gospel Essentials Essay

    1404 Words  | 3 Pages

    The foundation of a Christian worldview is the belief in a personal God, creator and ruler of the universe. The Christian worldview views the world through God’s word, providing the framework for humanity to live by giving meaning and purpose to life. It defines who Jesus is, human nature, and how salvation is achieved. In essence it is the basis of which Christians behave, interact, interpret life and comprehend reality. A Christian worldview imparts confidence, answers to life’s problems, and hope for the future. In this paper I will discuss the essentials of a Christian worldview and an analysis of the influences, benefits, and difficulties sustaining the Christian faith.

    Read More

  • Time Unstuck: Coping Mechanisms in Slaughterhouse-Five

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reed argues that the fantasy and science fiction of Slaughterhouse-Five are ways of dealing with reality (777). The aliens offer Billy a unique perspective on free will. They say that humans are the only species to believe in free will. They are subtly telling Billy that there is no such thing as free will and that individuals have no control over the events in their lives (Cox). These aliens explain to Billy that moments happen as they are meant to happen. When Billy asks the aliens why they chose to abduct him, the aliens tell him, “Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why” (Vonnegut 77). This view of life helps Billy to have a new understanding of the death and destruction he sees during the war. Since people do not choose to kill but are destined to do so, Billy is able to reconcile the cruelty he has seen. Understanding this fact helps Billy to come to terms with the atrocities he

    Read More

  • Why Is Billy Pilgrim Insane

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    Billy Pilgrim is also not like Pilgrim who is the main character in the “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, although they have same last name. His experience is very horrible in the war, there are just have violence and cruel, like the soldier who is in the “Three musketeers”. Imaginary, a man who just naive and have a great lucky, how can he keep his life in the war, just lucky? It is funny. Thus, though the whole novel “Slaughter-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character, Billy Pilgrim is a contradictory person who has the naive and sane attitude together, in almost time he looks like a child, but his wise can “see” at his speaking and action, likes his speaking “So it goes.” (2) Not only is the indifference to the lives, or the hatred and

    Read More

  • The Failure of the U.S. Labor Market to Distribute Gains

    2120 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...he nation’s prosperity as increases in benefits and wages to poor and working class Americans. Most of the gains due to the rise in the GDP in recent years wind up in the hands of the wealthiest of Americans. The increase in income inequality has cause stagnation in real wages among low skilled workers and has led to an increase in poverty. Unable to gain the education necessary to escape the cycle of low skilled jobs with little chance of upward mobility, children of parents who are in poverty stand a higher chance of being in poverty themselves. The solution to the problem of poverty is not simple; especially when it may involve changes in the way the U.S. labor market functions. However, as it stands now, failures of the labor market lead to higher rates of poverty, and unless the problem is addressed, we are unlikely to see a reduction in the U.S. poverty rate.

    Read More

  • Poverty in the United States

    1697 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many reforms in the UnitedStates have been passed to help fight against the “War on Poverty”; but it has not been effective in eradicating poverty in the U.S. There are about 46 million people who are living in impoverished conditions and poverty continues to be a social issue in this country (Heritage Foundation, 2011) In the beginning, our country was formed under the belief that “this land is the land of opportunity and if we worked hard enough the American Dream can be gained” (Schwarz, 1997). People immigrate to this country today in hopes of becoming rich so they could gain a better life. In spite of coming to this country for a better life, many are faced with the lack of skills and money to succeed. In the end, most will end up in unskilled labor jobs that can barely support their families. Poverty continues to be a growing social issue because people have the “ inability to provide necessities like clothes, healthcare, and shelter” (Heritage Foundation, 2011) to help themselves and their family; therefore, many sacrifices have to be made to insure their survival. Yet many reforms made to help people living in poverty are based “off of outdated statistics” (Henslin, 2014, p.276) and are not enough to help the lower class maintain a sufficient standard of living. Poverty relates to conflict theory since the poor are struggling just to get by. Government programs such as Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), housing assistance, and food stamps provided by the government are not enough to help the poor gain social mobility.

    Read More

  • Poverty And Poverty

    2397 Words  | 5 Pages

    Most notably The Great Depression, which last between 1929 to roughly 1939. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president through the depression, was the focal point in raising the nation out of the horrible depression. “Roosevelt acted swiftly to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, that aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans (History.com).” Fast forward seventy plus years later, America is in a crisis not as devastating as the Depression but a crisis none the less. 45.3 million American are currently living below the poverty line, meaning 45.3 million people in the United State is currently poor that is the equivalent to 14.5% of America. Of those 45.3 million, 16.4 million of those living in poverty are children(18 years and/or younger), that is equivalent to 22% of the children today. As history has proved to us time after time every problem has a solution just has the Great Depression was conquered, poverty could as well be subjugated. First, in order to kill two birds with one stone by decreasing poverty and ultimately unemployment is to create new jobs. Rebecca Vallas and Melissa Boteach of Center for American Progress formulated a few ideal, idea to rid our

    Read More

More about Billy Pilgrim as a Christ Figure in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse Five

Open Document