During World War II, Billy had to watch thousands of people die at a very young age, and this affected him greatly. (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/cranberries/zombie.html- this song describes the effects of war on families and all those involved) These traumatic events usually were explained in the fashion of flashback, however sometimes these events were explained using present, even future tense. Billy gives us an example of just one in the story, “One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters (Vonnegut 164).” These ideas and themes make you question what the purpose was for including them. War caused Billy to completely change. He was a completely different person when he came home. He keeps having flashbacks, which vonnegut calls time travel. “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time” (Vonnegut 23). In war, not only lives are lost, but minds. (http://booklover.tumblr.com/post/352394830/depression-is-such-a-cruel-punishment-there-are is a quote from a book that talks about depression and mental illness)
Within the story Vonnegut uses satirical elements to hide the question behind a series of coping mechanisms Billy uses to try to stay sane. He starts to have a different view of death.“Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is, ‘So it goes’” (Vonnegut 27). That is an example of Billy hiding his true self and literally being emotionally changed from the deaths he saw, and showing the more underlying effects of war to those involved. Billy became numb and unaffected by seeing people getting hurt and dying, so it didn’t phase him anymore. The bigger thing that this quote points out that he finds life meaningless. The thing that Vonnegut is trying to point out is that many of those involved in war feel this same way. This may be because of what they've seen in war or what it has taken away from them, like their innocence and hope that people and be kind and good. Billy responds to all deaths with “so it goes” and just moves on. This phrase was used by the author and more times than less you would ask “why?”. Well I think the purpose of this phrase (besides the fact that Billy used it to relieve himself) was to almost puzzle the reader further in order to submit their brain into further theorization. I sense a constant dark satirical voice within all that Billy does and says.. Vonnegut does a good job with that.
Beneath Billy’s post-war accomplishments, lies a man who is too torn apart from the war to really understand things in a normal way. He acts more like an immature boy than a man. This may have been caused by the traumatic events he experienced in the war. One other idea that Vonnegut points out is society putting down those who are different.“They found his halitosis unforgivable. But then he cleared that up, and he was welcomed to the human race.” pg.168. This quote is a great example of the point that Vonnegut is trying to get across.The book connects this idea to those in war who this has a big affect on. One of the ideas that was discussed in my group was that Billy may have PTSD, due to the traumatic things he experienced in the war. A coping mechanism he uses is claiming to have been kidnapped by aliens and taken to their home planet. He goes from place to place talking about the aliens and his adventures when visiting them. Billy is a traumatized man who cannot come to terms with the destructiveness of war without invoking a far-fetched and impossible theory to which he can shape the world.
In conclusion, Kurt Vonnegut, yet somewhat confusing started to make sense to me. The reason he sparks so many questions on purpose for the reader is so they create their own opinion on his book. Billy Pilgrim was a very conflicted character, but he answered my in depth question about how war affects people and their personality. The three big ways war can affects someone are now apparent to me after analyzing Billys broken personality. The book Slaughterhouse 5 in a nutshell was at some points dull, yet the amount of “philosopher type” questions that one asks themselves while reading the book can teach the reader something about life in the long run, or even help them answer a question of their own one day.