Apathy In Ayn Rand's Slaughterhouse Five

Throughout the entirety of the book, Slaughterhouse Five, there is a recurring theme of apathy and passivity regarding the characters’ choices. Each character is influenced by this theme in a different way. The most important message of this book is choice which is why apathy plays a big role. From people like the main character, Billy, who refuse to ever make a decision, to people who make choices to change their lives, this book will help you understand the power of your decisions. Billy is the most passive character in the history of literature. Ordinarily, time travel is one of the most exciting superhuman abilities, but in Billy’s case it lets him see the future and let it happen. For example, in the book Billy gets abducted by aliens on his own free will; “ Billy saw the war movie… then it was time to go out into his backyard to meet the flying saucer… He would not raise his eyes to the sky, though he knew there was a flying saucer from Tralfamadore up there. He would see it soon enough, inside and out, and he would see, too, where it came from soon enough-soon enough.” (Vonnegut 87) This is not the only time Billy runs into an avoidable situation. Another time in the book Billy lets himself get assassinated; “ ‘No,

One of the examples of this is the death of Edgar Derby; “Edgar Derby was caught with a teapot he had taken from the catacombs. He was arrested for plundering. He was tried and shot.” (Vonnegut 215) This event only occurred because of the choice to take a teapot. If that choice had not been made Derby would most likely have lived.The Tralfamadorians also had a good theory about apathy, “'That's one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.'” (Vonnegut 122) They had decided to ignore the bad times and live in the good ones. This is generally good advice in most