Literatures Seesaw

Vonnegut has a talent of playing with time that few others posses. He leads us through Billy’s life by going back and forth: “Billy is spastic in time, he has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren’t necessarily fun” (Vonnegut, p.23). By doing this he is able to transmit to the reader a sense of what is going on what led that person to where he is today. Our experiences are what make us who we are. Billy’s experiences in WWII greatly influenced his personality and changed him. The good thing about his method is guesswork. Vonnegut keeps the reader curious and entertained as well as he gives him a lesson on his beliefs. Billy is a person who does not value life: “The soldiers’ blue eyes were filled with a bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh.” (Slaughterhouse five) This makes him a very interesting person to hear about. We can see that Billy becomes very successful in the days to come, but what made him transform into this great person from the useless coward we must remain a mystery. When looking at older people I cant help but wonder what they used to look like and act like and in Slaughterhouse Five we are given that chance.

The author introduces many new ideas through themes that are uncommon: “It is just 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 for ever.” (Slaughterhouse five) To talk about the issue of time and at the same time change time gives me a greater understanding of what he means. The introduction of Billy’s abduction seemed a little far-fetched at the beginning but then I realized that it is a great way for a person to get his message across. People will pay attention to the alien abduction story and think he is crazy but still hear what he has to say. It is a book that makes you question what “Big Brother” has taught us for so long.