Kurt Vonnegut's I Have A Time Machine

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When Brenda Shaughnessy explains her struggle of time being uncontrollable in her poem, Kurt Vonnegut shares his ideas on the way humans perceive time while Billy is living on Tralfamadore this leads to both authors stressing the idea that staying in the moment and enjoying the season of life you are living in is the most important. Time controls most things that humans do, and discussing time through pieces of literature helps people realize how time is the ultimate controller over their lives. Humans seem to think that it's possible to beat or freeze time, but in reality time will neither slow down or speed up. Brenda Shaughnessy stresses throughout her poem, "I have a time machine," that the ability to slow down or speed up time is impossible …show more content…

One moment he is in the middles of the Bombing of Dresden to the next where he is living life on a plant called Tralfamadore. While Billy is living on Tralfamadore he continually finds himself asking "why me?" To which he is answered, "That is a very Earthing thing to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen a bug in amber?" (97) The reference of the bug in amber helps Billy see time in a whole new way. Billy learns that he must be present in the moment he is in now. Thinking too far into the future or looking back at old times draws him away from the life he is living in right now. Billy still finds himself time traveling from place to place and era to era, but the bugs in amber reminds him to stay present and take his surroundings in. Vonnegut is teaching his readers to realize how humans have a unique way of perceiving time. The Tralfamadorians explain to Billy that humans try to draw attention away from what is currently happening. Humans have a way of looking back at old times and trying to relive that moment or look to far ahead into the future to try to sneak a peek of what life looks like down the road. While remembering old times and looking in the future are useful for Billy in many aspects of his life, he realizes that those are causing him to miss the now. From this point on

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