Life and Times of Billy Pilgrim

Life and Times of Billy Pilgrim

Often the phrase time heals all wounds is used to try to consol someone going through a struggle. However, sadly when it comes to war this isn’t always the case. The hardships of war can last way past the combat on the battle field, the psychological aftermath can negatively affect an individual for the rest his or her entire life. Post traumatic stress disorder is becoming more and more common among veterans returning home. Studies estimate that one in every five military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan has PTSD and in the past year alone the number of cases in the military jumped fifty percent, this only includes diagnosed cases. (Rubush) In the novel Slaughterhouse Five author Kurt Vonnegut illustrates a story of the firebombing that occurred in the city of Dresden, Germany through the eyes of a prisoner of war. The narrative sporadically jumps back and forth between the events that happened during World War II and other parts of Billy Pilgrim’s, the main character, life. The events of the war are the only thing that ties all of these otherwise random events together. It appears to always at least be in the back of the main character’s mind. In his post war life Billy constantly attempts to somehow find a justification for the massacre he witness while in Dresden. During his journey to find the answer to the question that constantly haunts his mind Billy’s loses touch with reality. Since he is unable to find a logically reason as to why war was a part of his life his DTSP takes control of his actions. The destructiveness of war and horrific effects it can have on an individual

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is demonstrated throughout the novel Slaughterhouse Five by the sad existence of the protagonist Billy Pilgrim, a former prisoner of war.

The main focus Slaughterhouse Five is the events that occurred in Dresden during the war but the story shifts through different time periods in the protagonist life, both before and after the WWII. He seems to tie all of these separated and isolated instances back to the war even if there little to no correlation. “Little Billy was terrified, because his father had said Billy was going to learn to swim by the method of sink-or-swim. His father was going to throw Billy into the deep end, and Billy was going to damn well swim. It was like an execution. . . . [Billy] dimly sensed that somebody was rescuing him. Billy resented that.” (Vonnegut) In this particular part of the book Billy has his mental breakdown and his doctor tries to trace it back to this traumatic moment in the swimming pool. However, to Billy this scene represents everything that's wrong with his life in nutshell. He has no choice about being tossed into the pool and he has no choice about being saved from it. Much like he has no choice but to go fight in Germany, and he has no

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