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.