Billy Pilgrim is a man who fought in World War II when he was very young, and at such a young age, it was a large strain on Billy’s state of mind. Throughout the duration of the war, he saw terrible things, things that led him to wish death upon himself. When his time in battle was over, and his injuries had healed, he returned home and began a life that one wouldn’t call unusual. He got married, supported himself and his family as an optometrist, and on a commute in 1968, he was the lone survivor of a plane crash on top of a mountain in Vermont.
After those injuries had healed, Billy didn’t say much, until he made a very unusual and bold confession. “He told about having come unstuck in time. He said, too, that he had been kidnapped by a flying saucer in 1967. The saucer was from the planet Tralfamadore, he said. He was taken to Tralfamadore, where he was displayed naked in a zoo, he said.” The trauma from serving in World War II and being the sole survivor in a terrible plane crash could have altered Billy’s mind in such a way that enabled him to see himself being abducted by aliens, or even envision himself back in war times. Billy never truly knows when or where he’ll end up next, whether it be in the middle of a war prisoner camp in Germany in 1944 or on the distant planet of Tralfamadore in 1970. He is often caught off guard by the flashbacks because he immediately needs to adjust to the new, possibly dangerous or frightening surroundings. As you may realize, Billy has been through many life altering moments throughout his existence. Plenty of people who have endured the hardships of war have developed certain coping mechanisms to deal with the inevitable death of close friends. “The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die.” (26) While people seem to struggle to figure out why Billy is having interactions with these extraterrestrial beings, I believe that they are missing the point. It’s more about what these creatures have to teach Billy, rather than whether or not a mental disability is playing a role. “The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains...” (27) The idea of how life will look completely different if we just look at time in a new way is startling. Billy is being taught to look at life through all of its moments instead of just the present, which connects with the idea of time traveling. Whether or not Billy really did visit an alien planet is not a concern of mine, because it still had an impact on Billy’s perspective. Maybe these aliens were just a coping mechanism for the things Billy couldn’t get over, or maybe he did indeed see these aliens on their planet over a period of time, but a journey this peculiar must have an explanation. Here is a link that describes what PTSD is and how it affects people as they grow in the war: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-11-11/news/ct-met-late-onset-ptsd-2-20131111_1_vietnam-veterans-nightmares-vietnam-war Vonnegut leaves the mind to wonder-is this a result of the traumatic events that have occurred in Billy’s life?
“Campbell’s audience was sleepy. It had worked hard at the syrup factory, and then it had marched a long way home in the cold. It was skinny and hollow-eyed. Its skins were beginning to blossom with small sores. So were its mouths and throats and intestines.” (163) The men were completely broken down from the war into their most vulnerable form. They were sick, and the sickness wasn’t only physical. “One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.” (164) The war has clearly affected how his mind works, but it also changed how he acts. After the war and the plane crash had taken their toll on Billy’s sanity, he became very closed off. He was very quiet until he decided to tell of his great adventures on Tralfamadore. “He had supposed for years that he had no secrets from himself. Here was proof that he had a great big secret somewhere inside, and he could not imagine what it was.” (173) Billy couldn’t even fathom his own mind.
“‘How-how did I get here?’” (85) The Tralfamadorians present to Billy the concept of moments and their value in life. Billy asks about the end of the universe, a daunting question that we as people have all wondered at one time or another. Is there any explanation at all for the life of Billy Pilgrim, or does the mind create what it wants to create, coincidentally to a man who has seen horrifying things? “Escape was out of the question. The atmosphere outside of the dome was cyanide, and Earth was 446,120,000,000,000,000 miles away.” (112) This symbolizes Billy’s escape from his own mind, which one could believe created his journey. After seeing everything he has seen, there is no escape from the result of his trauma, except death.
“‘If you protest, if you think that death is a terrible thing, then you have not understood a word I’ve said.’” (142) “At that moment, Billy’s high forehead is in the cross hairs of a high-powered laser gun. It is aimed at him from the darkened press box. In the next moment, Billy Pilgrim is dead. So it goes.” (143) The casual way in which the narrator wraps up Billy’s death is probably because Billy knows, as well as accepts the fact, that his death will happen. What he also knows is that his death is not the end of life, but rather a moment that is dark, but only temporary. He will continue to live on in other moments. The overly-repeated phrase, “So it goes,” could be a coping mechanism for when he sees death. He may have created it subconsciously, and because death was such a common theme throughout his life, he had to learn to brush it off. For him, and most people, it’s easier to believe someone is still alive in some way than to come to terms with death.
Life and time have no true ending. Time is structured rather in moments and life is not structured to the passing of time. Billy faces his own death and he understands that this is only a moment in time. Billy’s death contradicts what society feels they know. “'No, no,' says Billy serenely. 'It is time for you to go home to your wives and children, and it is time for me to be dead for a little while-and then live again.'...Then he swings back into life...” (143) Just as life goes on for the people who experience another’s death, Billy’s life will go on in a new dimension outside of what people consider reality. The moments never end, time will continue to pass, and life will continue. Time and life do not define and end or a beginning. So it goes.