Slaughterhouse 5 Seminar Reflection
In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, the author emphasizes humans do not have free will. An interesting topic arose in our seminar about how war is inevitable and we have no control over how things happen. Billy Pilgrim had to learn to accept the fact that he had no control over where his mind would travel next Acceptance is the key to survival and peace of mind. A prayer that helped Billy cope with his travels goes as follows, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”(60). Free will is doesn’t exist because moments in time always have and always will exist. Having no free will can be frustrating and challenging at times. I learned from the book and the seminar the importance of acceptance and the role it plays in a peaceful and productive life.
Billy Pilgrim wasn’t actually abducted by aliens; rather his mind was abducted by the horrors of war. Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder include “recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event, reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again, avoiding places, activities or people that reminds one of the traumatic event upsetting dreams about the traumatic event.” (Mayo Clinic Staff). Billy displays all of these symptoms clearly throughout the book. His mental stability and how he experiences life was greatly affected by the World War Two horrific events, thus causing him to become “unstuck” in time.
After reading multiple sci-fi novels by author Kilgore Trout, Billy was inspired to create a different world in which he could escape his guilt and to give him the ability to accept his condition. “…he realized he had read it. It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo.” (201). Although Billy claims aliens kidnapped him, he was actually just having flashbacks to when he was reading the books in the veterans hospital.
Billy’s obsession with the very strange and awkward author Kilgore Trout, reminded me of Hazel Grace’s obsession, from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, with the author Peter Van Houten. Hazel has read and re-read An Imperial Infliciton by Peter Van Houten, because of how much she could connect to the characters in the book as well as having a burning desire to have her questions answered. In both Slaughterhouse Five and The Fault in Our Stars, the main characters can connect very well with peculiar and bizarre authors. Both Billy Pilgrim and Hazel have a deep connection and fascination with books.
Both All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Remarque and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, are stories of soldiers who were greatly affected by their experiences in war. Although twenty years, greater technology advancements, and different wars separated the lives of Paul Bäumer and Billy Pilgrim, they both endured the horrors that all wars bring. Each suffers greatly mentally and had a hard time in normal life. The war tore apart their lives and peaceful states of minds.