Metaphors In Slaughterhouse Five

1 2016
Slaughterhouse- Five by Kurt Vonnegut may just be one of the most abstract and seemingly odd books ever written. It is, on the surface, a confused story about an American soldier who witnessed Dresden’s destruction, yet it also features time warping aliens with hands for heads. Behind all of this apparent nonsense, however, are hidden metaphors. One such metaphor is the entire race of Tralfamadorians. These extra-terrestrials, by themselves represent little, but it is their philosophies which give Vonnegut’s novel the depth and meaning that it has. Some of the most important motifs shown in the book are the lack of free will in the aliens’ society, as it represents oppressive government on Earth, and how people react to new ideas which

These powerful rulers could have an entire nation follow their every command, regardless of the cost or consequence. The Tralfamadorians are exactly the same, except rather than being tied to another being, they are bound by time. Due to this, they often ignore wars and other tragedies by accepting that the inevitable was to occur, and that nothing could have been done to prevent it. This mirrors the leaders in charge during World War Two, who allowed massacres such as the Dresden bombing to occur, despite it not being strategically wise. Regardless, they ordered soldiers who swore to obey their every command to kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Surely, those airmen should not feel guilty, for they were just following orders, and so they did not have free will. The bombing was inevitable as soon as the idea sprouted

Immediately afterwards, he would go on delirious rants around the country about how fate is sealed and how time can go both forward and back. Naturally, this produced mostly negative reactions with people calling him a lunatic and a madman. This reaction however is identical to that of any groundbreaking idea. When Galileo said that the Earth spins, he was forced to renounce his findings or be executed, when the first modern, democratic country was founded, the entire world was convinced that it would fail, and while Billy may or may not be suffering from a mental condition, his ideas are most certainly groundbreaking. Had Billy kept his mouth shut and not said anything, then he would have kept his profession, his family, and would be able to live at home rather than in a hospital. Because he thinks differently however, because he is forced to live separated from everyone else, much like many great philosophers from the earliest Greek thinkers to many physicists of