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Kurt Vonnegut character analysis in slaughterhouse five
An essay about kurt vonnegut slaughterhouse book
An essay about kurt vonnegut slaughterhouse book
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In the novel Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut knows about the existence of free will
but believes that each individual has an inevitable future. The debate between fate and free will
is demonstrated through the philosophies of the Tralfamadorians as well as humans. Billy
Pilgrim might not believe or have a mindset in the idea of free will due to his whole life being predestined, he has little or no control on what occurs in his life. He has no say when being drafted for war or when being taken by the Tralfamadorians. While he is a soldier everyone tells him what to do due to his tendency to be unprepared and weak, nothing he does is actually his own free will. When the war passes and he grows older, he still does not control his own life,
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his daughter deems him as unstable and decides his future. His past, present, and future is all laid out for him. Billy, Vonnegut, nor the Tralfamadorians believe in free will, but they do believe in fate. Vonnegut believes that fate is the principle of life, thus he allows fate to control his life. Without free will there is no reason the fight for human rights and change social wrongdoings. He believes there is no reason to fight for anything since everything is already chosen and predestined for everyone. Consequently, by fighting for something that is already decided for a person, that prevents their happiness. Free will is a major theme in this novel, but there seems to be an absence of free will for Billy, “Among the things that Billy could not change were the past, the present and the future"(Vonnegut 60). He could not change what has happened to him or what will happen to him. Humans believe in the idea that a person will choose their own fate and destiny, but Vonnegut disapproves with that idea. Billy has no say in what will happen to him or what has happened to him since its already chosen. Free will is something that one should be able to decide, but it is something that does not exist. Everyone has a destined way to live and no matter what that will not change. If something is meant to happen, it will one way or another. Moreover, the Tralfamadorians have a different belief system, which is the reason for their easy and illusory lifestyle. The Tralfamadorians abducted Billy Pilgrim and live in a world where all moments of time keep reoccurring. They accept what the future holds for them since they have already lived their lives. They do not believe in the essence of free will since they have no power to choose their own futures. Everyone’s life is chosen for him or her, and they have no say to change it. The Tralfamadorians criticize earth and humans because they believe that there will always be war on earth, therefore it is corrupt. They say, “That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?” ( Vonnegut 76-77). Although he is unstuck in time, he has no free will and has to live in the moment. For them free will does not exist, the only ones who believe in free will are those who are from Earth. For them time is nothing but an illusion and all moments in time are inevitable. Tralfamadore is the fantasy world Vonnegut wants to live in therefore he sends Billy there. People’s choices are chosen for them since there is no free will and it is an escape from war. All his ideas go against free will. Nevertheless, both Billy Pilgrim and the Tralfamadorians accept the essence of free will, and embrace the fact that it does not exist. They know fate cannot be changed therefore he accepts any situation that comes his way, rough or virtuous. He does not endeavor to stop fate or change fate. His inability to do so is because he adapts the way the Tralfamadorians think and act.
Since he realizes he could not do anything in his own power he learn to live the life he is
supposed to live. In war, a soldier’s free will is taken away as well. Billy knows he is going to be
killed, but does nothing to stop it because he accepts the fact that that is his fate. Billy Pilgrim
says, "I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains.
All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations, “It
simply is." (Vonnegut 86). Since Billy cannot change anything that occurs in his life he creates a fantasy planet in order to escape through hallucinations from free will. He does not like the idea of free will since because of free will wars begin. The Tralfamadorians tell Billy that all moments in life transpire simultaneously, and it is only a deception if they seem to have linearity. Since all moments of time have already occurred and keep recurring, they accept their fates, presuming they are incapable to change them.
Consequently, the only ones who believe in free will and the idea are humans, who
believe that time is linear, which is the complete opposite of the Tralfamadorian belief system.
The principle of free will is unique to humans. Characters such as Roland Weary, Mary
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O’Hare, and Paul Lazarro are humans who believe in free will.
Weary believes he can be a hero, Mary
O’Hare believes eventually war might end if the young generation of men stops being drafted,
and Lazarro believes he can get revenge on Billy. The Tralfamadorian says, “I wouldn’t have any
idea what was meant by ‘free will.’ I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I
have studied reports on one hundred more. “Only on Earth is there any talk of free will.”(Vonnegut 86).Everything exists in the moment. It is enclosed to and nothing can change it. Billy travels to Tralfamadore to escape the rough reality of life on Earth. He is traumatized by war and deals with it by escaping to another planet with no free will where life has already planned out for people. Everything exists in the moment it was enclosed to and nothing can change it. Pilgrim consciously chooses to make his encounter about the deficiency of free will since he is human.
The debate between fate and free will is demonstrated through the philosophies of the
Tralfamadorians as well as humans. Billy Pilgrim might not believe in the idea of free will due to
his whole life being predestined, he has little or no control on what occurs in his life. Billy has
no say in what will happen to him or what has happened to him since it is already chosen. For the Tralfamadorians time is nothing but an illusion and all moments in time are inevitable. Billy does not endeavor to stop fate or change fate. His inability to do so is because he adapts the way the Tralfamadorians think and act. Humans believe that time is linear, which is the complete opposite of the Tralfamadorian belief system. The principle of free will is unique to humans. But Vonnegut’s perspective is inimitable; he believes life will be easier with no free will since everything is already planned out for you. Fate and free will are ideals necessary to help individuals fight for what they want. With no free will one has no say in your ones happiness or personal accomplishments
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally
“Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion” (Dictionary.com). The novel Slaughterhouse five portrays the idea of not having free will. The award winning author, Kurt Vonnegut, tells
He points out that the people in the novel "are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces" (164). Billy knows that he is going to die anyway, regardless of what he does or does not do, and he plainly wants to remain unscathed during his journey. Vonnegut used this publication as a vehicle to show that it is not enough to live a life to its end, the approach that Billy employed.
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.
Billy proves throughout the book that he is not mentally stable, yet somehow, he is persuasive in his interpretation of the truth.
Another good example of the lack of free will would be when Billy is about to die. Normally, someone would care about their death, but Billy does not. He locks up a tape in a safe-deposit box, saying "I, Billy Pilgrim, will die, have died, and always will die on February thirteenth" (180). Before he dies, he is giving a speech, and he knows that he will be assassinated.
Human beings always believe that what they want to do is ‘up to them,' and on this account, they take the assumption that they have free will. Perhaps that is the case, but people should investigate the situation and find a real case. Most of the intuitions may be correct, but still many of them can be incorrect. There are those who are sceptical and believe that free will is a false illusion and that it only exists in the back of people’s minds, but society should be able to distinguish feelings from beliefs in order to arrive at reality and truth.
The people of Tralfamadore tell Billy that humans do not understand time because everything they do is in singular progression. “It is an illusion we have 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). The Tralfamadorians also tell Billy that nothing can be changed because of the structure of how time works. When Billy asks one of the Tralfamadorians about free will the creature responds, “Only on Earth is there any talk of free will,” (86). The people of Tralfamadore say that, “All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is,” (86). With this in mind everything in life is left up to fate there is no chance at free will because every moment is already a moment and no one is capable of changing
Billy constantly feels bad about the choices he makes. While Billy is in the ward, he is surrounded by many strong women who are all in charge. The main nurse, Nurse Ratched, is constantly watching over him due to her relationship with his mother, who doesn’t want him to grow up. With these expectations from his mother and Nurse Ratched, Billy conforms into a thirty year old man who is afraid to think for himself. Billy is still a virgin when he enters the ward, due to his mother not letting him think for himself. This causes Billy to constantly feel guilty and unhappy when he makes choices for himself, because those around him made him believe that he does not deserve to make his own choices. When Billy finally did something for himself
He marries the daughter of the owner of the school and immediately becomes overwhelmingly wealthy. Being handed so much money Billy was finally able to control his own fate. Yet still feeling powerless in his own life after the war, Billy has a mental break and admits himself into a psychiatric ward where he voluntarily goes through electric shock therapy. Billy still being very naïve after the war took the end of his childhood is unaware of why he still feels so powerless with his fate even though he has the money and power to do what he pleases. Billy’s mind tries correcting itself and causes Billy to have flashbacks, or as he refers to them as time traveling, and
In the novel, Kurt Vonnegut proposes the question of whether free will exist or not. The Tralfamadorians live with the idea of the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension contains occurring and reoccurring events, considering that they believe all moments have already passed. According to the Tralfamadorians, there is only free will on Earth, considering humans only think of time as a linear progression. Billy regresses back to events as a child, and remembers when his father let him sink to the bottom of the pool where he prefers to be, but he was rescued. As a young adult, Billy was drafted into the war against his free will. Even as a soldier in the war, Billy is not taken solemnly by the other soldiers. Billy comes to the conclusion that even if he trained hard, and became a good soldier he’d still die like the other soldiers in Dresden who are much better than him. Billy’s real world on earth seems to be taken into bits and pieces into the Tralfamadorian world where Billy thinks is error free. Although the serenity prayer is directed towards God, Billy directs it towards the Tralfamadorians instead. This prayer is significant to this theme, because Billy is trying to live up to the standards of the Tralfamadorians, which is nearly impossible and
Billy benefits greatly from this new cosmic outlook. He believes so much in the teachings of Tralfamadore that he even becomes a Jesus-like figure later in his life, eventually being publicly executed much like his Christian doppleganger. In his article, David L. Vanderwerken discusses the deterministic qualities of Tralfamadorianism, its argument against determinism, and the possible allure of it, “In short, Tralfamadorianism is an argument for determinism. Yet, this is a determinism without design, where chance rules. The universe will be destroyed accidentally by the Tralfamadorians, and wars on earth are inevitable..
Imagine starting your day and not having a clue of what to do, but you begin to list the different options and routes you can take to eventually get from point A to point B. In choosing from that list, there coins the term “free will”. Free will is our ability to make decisions not caused by external factors or any other impediments that can stop us to do so. Being part of the human species, we would like to believe that we have “freedom from causation” because it is part of our human nature to believe that we are independent entities and our thoughts are produced from inside of us, on our own. At the other end of the spectrum, there is determinism. Determinism explains that all of our actions are already determined by certain external causes
Freedom, or the concept of free will seems to be an elusive theory, yet many of us believe in it implicitly. On the opposite end of the spectrum of philosophical theories regarding freedom is determinism, which poses a direct threat to human free will. If outside forces of which I have no control over influence everything I do throughout my life, I cannot say I am a free agent and the author of my own actions. Since I have neither the power to change the laws of nature, nor to change the past, I am unable to attribute freedom of choice to myself. However, understanding the meaning of free will is necessary in order to decide whether or not it exists (Orloff, 2002).
Nature is complicated. It includes many different sorts of things and one of these is human beings. Such beings exhibit one unique yet natural attribute that others things apparently do not—that is free will.