No Answers, Just An Ending

The ending of slaughterhouse five didn’t exactly surprise me. I expected something better and unexpected.  I always supposed that the ending would explain all the crazy things that happened throughout the book.  But we are left without an explanation.  At the beginning I supposed that Vonnegut was using Billy’s character to reflect himself. But as the book ends, we find out that they are separate characters. Vonnegut makes himself present at some of Billy’s stories, like if they had been war comrades or something.  “That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.” page. 125 That was the only answer I got, that Billy and the author were separate characters. But I was still left with a lot of questions. Was Billy really crazy? Are the people he mentions real or in his head?  Where did he get such idea about Tralfamadorians?

Even dough the purpose of this book was to talk about war, I didn’t pay much attention to those parts. I spent more time thinking about all the time traveling and the 4 dimensions.  I found the Tralfamadorians and their way of thinking fascinating.  I loved the concept of how we all live forever.  The idea that we may be dead at a certain moment, but then there will be plenty other in which we are alive. To them, life is like a never-ending cycle.  The book did a good job portraying war as a terrifying and ferocious act.  But what I really learned from it, is to appreciate time.  Memories and moments are all we are left with, we have to make them worth coming back too.

Is War Really Heroic?

As I read this book I had forgotten that it was supposed to be an anti-war book. I was paying too much attention to all the time traveling stuff. By reading chapter 8 I remembered that the actual purpose of the book was to talk about war. This chapter shows the horrible state soldiers are in. Not only physically,  but morally as well. “There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”  This book is not the typical war story were everything seems glorious and heroic.  It gives us a little taste of the actual reality of this horrifying act.

Kilgore trout is also a big part of chapter 8.  One of his stories caught my attention and actually made me laugh. It was called “the money tree”.  I think it was a really cool way of explaining human greed.  I don’t think Kilgore is actually real. He is a real character in the book, but I think Billy made him up. He uses Kilgore’s stories to explain his own thoughts or situations.

Real Soldier?

The beginning of chapter 7 reminded me of the movie “final destination”. In the movie, there’s a guy who is supposed to get on a certain plane. But somehow he knows that the plane is going to crash.  He decides to defy his destiny and save his life by not going into the plane.  Billy also knows that his plane is going to crash. But he has learned to leave moments as they are.  He goes into the plane and survives the crash.  But he injures his head. Earlier in the book, Barbara mentions that Billy’s stories about tralfamadorians started in this time. This makes me believe that since the airplane crash Billy became literally crazy. 

There was a certain aphorism that called my attention.  In page 159, a widow examines the soldiers.  She says “All the real soldiers are dead”. Billy agreed to this, but I completely disagree. They are all real soldiers.  For instance, what is a real soldier anyway? For the widow in the story a real soldier is a tough man who is the right age. For me, a real soldier is just anyone who is brave enough to defend their country with their own lives. Just the fact of being in Dresden and trying to help makes Billy, Gluck and Derby real soldiers. 

No Beginning, No End..

Talfamadorians describe their reading as “there is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”  I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to really understand this concept. I kept wondering how it would be possible to read many moments at once.  Then I realized that it’s the perfect description for this book. We are reading many different moments, seeing Billy’s life all at once.  If you think about it, there is no specific order for the story. Billy jumps from time to time, showing us different moments that have no specific relationship between them, no cause or effect. As I read chapter 5 I felt like a Tralfamadorian looking at Billy’s life. Maybe that is the point of the book.  Maybe Vonnegut wants to give the reader the feeling of perceiving life in 4 dimensions. 

  

After thinking about the book for a while, I realized Vonnegut is an excellent writer. He is able to write without a chronological order and still make it easy to understand.  It must be hard to keep the book organized with so much “time traveling”.

Read Your Mind

Eugenia Camargo wrote a blog she called “Life and the Maze of Golf   “. By reading this blog I realized how we all perceive different things from the book. When I read this chapter my responses were completely different from Eugenia’s. It made understand that some things that may seem unimportant to me are meaningful to another person. Like in her response, she talks about the reactions of the Russian soldiers as they see the Americans. While I was reading I didn’t even notice this detail. She also says that “I know the feeling of not knowing what to expect of a person’s reaction.” I do agree with that. It’s actually something that stresses me out. If I could choose any super power ever, I would choose mind reading. This way I would always know what to expect from someone else.

Eugenia also mentions something that caught my attention, “I realized life becomes very monotonous, one starts to live of memories and routines. Doing the same 3 things you love and not looking for anything else.”  I agree with the statement that live may become monotonous. But I don’t see anything wrong with doing the things you love your whole live. If you really love something it will never become repetitive for you. I loved that she included a picture of how she imagined the character Edgar Derby. I liked her choice (Brad pitt). But I imagined him more like this:  

Live By The Moment

When Billy is abducted by the Tralfamadorians in chapter 4, he wonders “Why me?” I thought it was a very valid question. Actually, I would have wondered the same thing. But when the Tralfamadorian responded, it sort of opened my eyes. I loved how he related moments in time to a bug trapped in amber. “Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”(pg.77)  People tend to over-think life. We analyze everything and question every minute.  But this quote tells me that life is unexpected, and I’d rather worry about now.  Most people think I’m reckless for not thinking about my future. But why would I want to spent my life worrying about my future? Life is all about living the moment, about enjoying every experience to the fullest. Besides, the way I see it, we never get to live the future. We are always living in the present. So we might as well make the best out of it. When you look back at your life, memories are all you will have. If you make the best out of every moment, you will have memories worth remembering. This chapter reminded me of a quote I once read, “The problem with people is that we can’t ever seem to simply exist in this moment. We are always poking in the past or prodding into the future.”

Should We Look Back?

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

Billy mentions that this prayer helps him move on. When he talks about this, he has already been through war. I think that the reason why Billy finds these words so soothing is that they help him accept his past. He has so many memories about war, probably a million regrets as well. This prayer tells him that he just needs to keep on living, accepting the fact that time is not under his control. Yes, he can go back and look at his past. But he can’t change it. It also says that he should  have enough courage to change the aspects he can control. Once he can tell the difference between the two, he will find peace.

I can relate to Billy in the sense that when I read this prayer I also find it comforting. Sometimes I just think back and wish I could change so much. Then I realize that I need to accept that whatever has happened already did. It can’t be changed. It is pointless to wish you could alter your past, you will feel unfulfilled since it’s impossible. But it is possible to change some aspects of your life to ensure a better future.