Symbolism In Slaughterhouse

In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5, Billy travels in between two different planets,Earth and Tralfamadore. The question here is,why? Billy becomes “unstuck” in time as a delusion of his mental impediment, Schizophrenia.Vonnegut allows the reader to draw this consensus of,”mental wounds are far more severe than physical infliction” by using various literary devices such as flashbacks,parallel structure and syntax. Schizophrenia is a “long term mental disorder of a type involving breakdowns in the relationship between thoughts,emotions and behavior,leading to faulty,inappropriate actions and feeling, withdrawal from reality and personal into fantasy and delusions.” Symptoms of Schizophrenia include delusions, lack of emotion, lack of interest.

Billy Pilgrim was kidnapped and held hostage in a Slaughterhouse against his will in Dresden. Although, Billy was not subject to any long term physical injury the trauma of the abduction has transformed into a psychotic episode. Billy creates an alternate universe of where he is taken against his will by tralfamadorians and goes to the planet Tralfamadore. While on Planet Tralfamadore Billy asks “why me” and draws the response of “ Why you?Why us for that matter” (78).This response from the Tralfamadorians is oddly similar to the response the germans gave when billy asks the same question of “why me?”, the german nazi responds “Vy you?--Vy anybody?”(91). This demonstrates that Billy created the Tralfamadorians and the planet Tralfamadore as a way to cope with the trauma he sustained while being held captive in the Slaughterhouse.The tralfamadorians/germans reconfirm Billy’s schizophrenia because in his head he’s living in a state of delusion. In this state, Billy has no control of himself and his surroundings. This is the result of Billy’s external locus of control and delusion of control,which is a symptom of schizophrenia. Delusion of control is the “Belief that one’s thoughts or actions are being controlled by outside, alien forces. Common delusions of control include thought broadcasting (“My private thoughts are being transmitted to others”), thought insertion (“Someone is planting thoughts