Blindness In Slaughterhouse Five

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Blindness
The novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut displays a strong theme of sight, and lack thereof. The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, is an optometrist by trade. He deals with trying to make people see. However, after he goes to war, he becomes blind to the real world. One may speculate that the entire subplot of the Tralfamadorians, the aliens that supposedly kidnap him and keep him in a zoo, could be a figment of his imagination. Whether it is real or not, Billy learns many things from them. He learns about the fourth dimension, time, and tries to help other people to see like he does.
Billy Pilgrim’s profession is optometry. This choice by the author very much reflects the theme of the novel. Some believe that this was a very intentional …show more content…

Images of murder and violence is enough to kill a man without a single bullet. In some senses, it did just that to Billy Pilgrim. It screwed with his vision. It broke the poor man. He became blind to the world around him. He did not mind images of death and blood. His insensitivity to these subjects are clearly seen when it is said that, “Billy had an extremely gruesome crucifix hanging on the wall of his little bedroom in Ilium” (38) This not only shows his blindness and numbness to things that would make others look away in disgust, but it represents his physical and mental scars leftover from the war. And sometimes, mental injuries leave much deeper …show more content…

How could any species even exist outside of earth, much less be more intelligent than humans? Well, Billy Pilgrim thinks they are real. In fact, he has meet them. Or so he thinks. Madness comes in different forms. Sometimes it is different even in the same person. First, Billy becomes blind to pain. Then, he becomes schizophrenic. He imagines that an alien species, the Tralfamadorians, abduct him and keep him in a zoo while they teach him about their ways. The Tralfamadorians can more than the three dimensions humans can see. They can see four. The fourth, of course, is time. This alien species could travel forward and backward in time. They believe more than what humans believe, which is that “It is just an illusion here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone, it is gone forever.” (27) Pilgrim writes this in his second letter to his local newspaper, as he tries to convince the town of Ilium that the fourth dimension is real and it is possible to travel in time. He sees this, but cannot get anyone else too. This is ironic, because now Billy has gone full circle and is trying to help people see again. This once again supports the theme of

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