How Does Billy Pilgrim Have Ptsd In Slaughterhouse Five

In the novel ‘Slaughterhouse five’ written by Kurt Vonnegut we follow a man named Billy Pilgrim who became unstuck in time. He was a soldier during WW2 and became a prisoner to the Germans. Afterward he was send to Dresden, a nice town that doesn’t get involve in the war. As he’s about to be send out, an English soldier told him not worry about much as there’s no involvement of war activity in the town. However once he arrived the Americans bombed the town, blazing up in flame. The guilt from the event became a major part that develops Billy’s PTSD because it’s his countrymen who did it. “…Billy had seen the greatest massacre in European history…”(73). “I myself have seen the bodies of schoolgirls boiled alive by my own countrymen.”(84) My

Kunze wrote; “Even after the war, Billy is unable to enact an acceptable example of American masculinity. His very name suggests his childlike state: “Billy” as the diminutive of “William,” while “Pilgrim” alludes to his disconnectedness from the world that leads him to travel between time and place. Believing himself to be an abductee, Billy frustrates his family, who perceives what today may be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as insanity. His daughter infantilizes him, sternly advising him, “If you’re going to act like a child, maybe we’ll just have to treat you like a child” (167)…” (Kunze 2012). Billy talks about being abducted by Tralfamadorians and he was asked to stripped down his clothes just like when he was in the German prison as a POW. “Billy did as he was told, took off his clothes.”(60) He is then put in a zoo for the Tralfamadorians, which is similar to when he was in the travel carts, being poked and made a fool of. Having past experience with the German prison and reading sci-fi novels with aliens looking very similar to Tralfamadorians, the effect of PTSD develop it into a story of Tralfamadorians abduction. The 4th dimension part of the Tralfamadorians story would’ve came from the novel ‘Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension’. “…‘Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension’…about people whose mental diseases can’t be treated becase the causes of the diseases were all in the fourth dimension…three dimensional earthling doctors couldn’t see those causes…”(75). With the Tralfamadorians seeing all things in the 4th dimension and seeing time all at once, Vonnegut wrtitting style does the same. Each chapter jumps from a time diferent time without being in a linea tradition. The idea of Tralfamadorians would’ve came from the novel ‘The Gospel from Outer Space by Kilgore Trout’. “…It