no this isn’t the case. Billy is not actually experiencing reality, but instead what Billy is suffering from is a coping mechanism from the condition known as PTSD. Billy uses these jumps into different times, and places from his past to cope with his traumatic stress that he received from the war that he was drafted into. PTSD is a condition linked to events that have happened in peoples lives that aren't exactly enjoyable memories, but rather the opposite. This case becomes present in people who have gone through traumatic experiences.
Albeit, Billy's coping mechanism is a negative one, it worked for him. He is disassociated from reality because he truly believes the Tralfamadorian philosophy of "All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist." (27) The bombing of Dresden happened, and since it happened, it has always happened that way and always will happen that way. At least, that's what the Tralfamadorians think.
Throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the narrator, Chief Bromden, has a slight mystery surrounding him, like several of the other characters. That is, what mental illness is Chief in the ward for exactly? The answer might seem like the obvious post traumatic stress disorder, but is it really? While he does have the necessary traumatic experience for PTSD to occur, he doesn’t necessarily show all the symptoms. In fact, he shows just as many symptoms for depersonalization/derealization disorder and schizophrenia as he does PTSD.
The first detail established in Slaughterhouse-Five is that Billy is “unstuck in time” and cannot focus on a particular day or event (Vonnegut 23). Billy’s time traveling is really his thoughts moving back and forth between the present and the past. Because of his overly active mind, Billy must use a vibrating mattress called the “Magic Fingers” to help him fall asleep (62). Instead of sleeping, he often weeps, which is one of the only times in the book he shows emotion (62). Billy’s lack of emotion can be construed as detachment.
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.
Billy is always pressured to get better but by doing that the nurses and doctors are just making him worse, they see how he reacts to their statements and it makes him begin to implode. We don't get to see how Billy sees the world but we do get to see is the effect he has on people and the effect he has on them, Billy is the child of the story and McMurphy just wants to help him, but Billy takes all comments or action towards him in interesting ways and sometimes they can lead to Billy getting hurt. Near the end of the story Billy is confronted about having sex with one of McMurphy’s “friends” by Mrs. Ratched and Billy concludes that the best way to deal with the situation is to kill
Billy was a twenty three years old. He was a black man who was captured by the KKK in the 1920s. Billy's went through a rough time. (Cohen) He was burnt, choked, beaten and even starved.
In almost everything he does he is the odd man out. Billy seems like the weird person who just always seems out of place and like he doesn't belong. 1969 was the year that this book was published. PTSD was discovered in 1980, so therefore in the book they couldn't define Billy’s condition. As even in reality they didn't know what it was.
All of these are just some things that Billy’s suffers symptoms of PTSD. One of the symptoms that Billy Pilgrim that he does show are the Re-experiencing symptoms which according to NIMH include “Flashbacks—reliving the trauma over and over, including physical symptoms like a racing heart or sweating, Bad dreams, and Frightening thoughts” (National Institute of Mental Health, Symptoms) One of the examples is where Billy is when he is trapped in a cart and he then flashes back to " And then Billy was a middle-aged optometrist again, playing hacker's golf this time - on a blazing summer Sunday morning." (Vonnegut,85)
Some experiences, like the sudden unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD” (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). PTSD, like many other diseases, can arise from a number of conditions, making it hard to pinpoint where it stems from. Vonnegut takes into account that PTSD can come from a number of sources, providing a plethora of possible explanations for Billy’s mental capacity throughout the novel. For instance, early in Billy’s life, Billy, along
Billy is said to become unstuck in time to different events in his life. He flashes to memories of Dresden, which is the war that he participated in. He also has episodes of his flight crash, he knows how he will die, and how his wife dies. This book is so sporadic, the audience never truly knows when this book is taking place in Billy’s life. Each page could contain three or more different events in Billy’s
Because of Dependent Personality Disorder, not only did Billy feel the need to have a relationship with someone but his relationship was ruined because of his fearful
Let’s start with the main character himself, Billy. Billy is an odd soul that is dealing with things out of this world. Dealing with his PTSD is a big themes in the book. He says he keeps getting “unstuck in time” from the PTSD. Then again at any moment he can be transferred to a different time in his life.
Throughout the novel, Billy has specific experiences with horrific warfare
On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. Within days, France and Great Britain had declared war against Germany. Over the course of the next six years, World War II touched every continent on the globe, with the exception of unpopulated Antarctica (“World War II Timeline”). The effects of this “great war” are still felt throughout the world today in both tangible and intangible ways. The field of Trauma Studies was in its infancy at the onset of this war.
