In Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut leads readers to ask essential questions about human nature and society. For example, Why don't people understand that life is like a war for people with disabilities? This question contains few separate parts to it, but can use many ideas provided within the story, thoroughly covering the question. Even though it is an anti-war book, the idea of war seems to be everywhere in our society these days.
It is very obvious that Billy has serious mental issues after fighting in a war in Dresden. After the war, Billy is described as being a confused, deranged old man, telling stories about his encounter on the planet of Tralfamadore, learning from the citizens that you should be detached from life, that during your whole life you are merely dying. Life is, in a way, only an illusion, that one moment you will be here and alive, and gone the next. If you die, you will still be alive and well in memories, but you will no longer have a physical body. It’s noticed that the phrase “so it goes” is said after every death occurs in the story. What does the phrase really mean? When read, that phrase implies that things, such as death, are beyond our control and we have to learn how to accept it, which is Billys attitude throughout the stories. “In that next moment Billy Pilgrim is dead. So it goes.” (143). We realized that he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is still alive in other moments of their life which are visited through time-travel. No average person believes that time travel exists in the real world but Billy does. Although it is never stated this may be a sign that Billy has a disease such as, PTSD. After war it is beyond Billys control and he’ll have to deal with this disorder for the rest of his life. With Billys disease he is basically reliving the war and all that he’s experienced. It is hard for some people to understand the fact that having a disease is like fighting in war, everyday there’s a new battle to face.
Throughout the book it came to our attention that some people fairly close to Billy kept bringing up the idea that money is the key factor to life. It seems that they are putting the idea in his head, that he is all and well as long as he has a lot of money. Is life like a war for people without money? Not having money could be compared to living with a disability. Both are set backs and make it more difficult to live the “average” lifestyle. People don’t understand that not everyone is granted with perfect health or perfect lives. We see Billy experience this realization when he returns back from war.
One idea from the story is that the main character, Billy, has a mental disability, due to the fact he was caught in a war at such a young age, as a “baby.” I found this an example of reversal, considering babies don’t actually fight in wars. But the soldiers don’t actually consider themselves babies, which is where they fault. They consider themselves men, which leads them to believe they can handle a lot that is put on them; completely wrong. In the book, Billy can’t handle most that is put on him, so he is forced to try to give up. “Billy stood there politely, giving the marksman another chance.” This is a great example of Billy giving up. He was willing to give up his life, just to rid himself of the war(s) he is going through. This book connects its ideas that fighting through life with an immature mind (being described as babies in the book) leads you to a greater war to get past.
So why don’t people understand that life is like a war for people living with disabilities? Billy isn’t the only one who has returned back from war with a so called “disease”. This happens to many people who serve time. www.americainwwii.com/articles/haunted/ “Unfortunately, veterans often found that the ghosts of war followed them into the postwar world” This article shows that even after war is over it stays with you for the rest of your life, just like we see in Slaughterhouse 5, with Billy Pilgrim.