World War 1 was coined, “The war to end all wars”, however, the uncomfortable conditions of trench warfare, and the inhumane use of mustard gas didn’t prevent the second world war from occurring. Accompanying the second round of global travesty was even more casualties on both sides of the field. Some of the anguish witnessed during the worldwide massacre are summarized in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.
Vonnegut bases the entirety of the book around the Dresden bombing that transpired during the bloodiest global conflict ever known. He uses Billy Pilgrim, a soldier who witnessed the bombing, to explain the alienated point of view that humans are currently blinded from in regard to free will and why humans don’t have the power of choice. By using Billy’s ability to travel through his life non-linearly both metaphorically and literally, Vonnegut expertly illustrates not only the downfalls of human nature, but the astounding discovery and acceptance without free will, especially when referring to the forces that control human nature.
After all, humans are simply subject to outside forces, the effect of which is isolation and apathy because of the lack of free will.Billy Pilgrim’s alien abduction on his daughter’s wedding night completely altered his perception of reality. The tralfamadorians, an alien race that abducted Billy, introduces their ideology that completely contradicts free will. After Billy asks, “Why me?” the Tralfamadorians respond with, “Why anything for that matter?” (Citation) and introduce Billy to an entirely new perspective.
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After such a life altering encounter with that alien race, Billy then travels in time again with a new, possibly harmful outlook on life. He now realizes that nothing he does in the moment really matters because he’s seen his entire life throughout a series of jumbled moments, so he knows his endgame.(Quote). This foreknowledge of his future results in apathy. When one knows how a book, a movie, or a story ends, one loses any interest in re-discovering the outcome. The same can be said about one’s own story.
Apathy leads to passivity when one has no influence or ability to change the outcome. When events are beyond one’s control, apathy and passivity are the natural responses. Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, does not act independently. Rather, he is acted upon. When he’s Instead of being captured by the Germans, he is kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians.
It isn’t until Billy attempts to recount his tale of abduction, does the reader see action by the protagonist himself. Some may consider his attempts as a response, rather than action.
Supporting characters even seek possible responses from Billy in his passive state of mind, but all attempts are futile. As Vonnegut notes in Chapter Eight, ‘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.’
As Vonnegut expressed, the ‘sick’ are simply powerless against “enormous forces”. Taking into account the time in which Vonnegut released the novel, during the height of the Vietnam conflict in the late 1960s, one of the forces human being’s are powerless to control is their involvement in war. He views war as a product of the human nature.(Quote).
Because humankind is impotent to such powers that they don’t understand completely, it results in an illusion of free will, when in fact there is none. As one tralfamadorian stated, “[He’s] visited 31 inhabited planets in the universe, and have studied reports on 100 more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will.” The Tralfamadorians’ cynicism directly contradicts human’s optimism in regard to the amount of control one has over one’s life. Since the beginning of time human beings have developed an ideology that includes freedom from predestination.
However, this entitlement has only been owned by those in power over others. If one is in control of others, for instance master versus slave or king versus subjects, then those in control have ‘free will’. Slaves and subjects have no control and therefore no free will. Both are humans, yet a simple change in status, confers the illusion of free will. The masters and kings under the illusion of free will, are still slaves to greater forces. For example, they are subjects to the roles assigned by society. Whether one is born dirt poor or filthy rich, they will always be subjected to a force predetermining their behavior.
Billy Pilgrim describes the Dresden bombing as “the greatest massacre in European history.”135,000 German civilian lives were claimed by high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices dropped on the city by the allies, which was the event that inspired Vonnegut to create the satirical memoir. SlaughterHouse-Five is based off of this event that aids in Billy Pilgrim’s perspective on free will and being subjected to forces we cannot control, as well as his abduction by the Tralfamadorians.
Vonnegut strategically assigned his main character’s surname as “one who travels far distances in search of faith”. Billy travels through time and space in search of answers to the horror that he experienced in war. Rather than answers, he’s rewarded with more questions about his existence, and his previous belief in free will. Vonnegut’s despair relating to human nature is illustrated through Billy Pilgrim’s adventures that prove how impotent humans are against the powerful forces in control.
