Dagney Hillman
English 4, Skoglund
In the book Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses the repeated image of the tralfamadorians and Billy Pilgrim’s connections between his war experience and their views on the universe, to reveal Vonnegut's message about the emotional damage that is done by war, and the need for veterans to find a way to escape the trauma as Billy does when ***1***he believes he is mated with a porn star in a Tralfamadorian zoo, and ***2*** where he takes on a new philosophy about death and time.
Topic Sentence about being a prisoner 2xs one in the war and one on Tralfamadore Billy Pilgrim was a prisoner two times. Once in the war, and again on Tralfamadore.
C: war (traumatized as a captive) but he wasn't just captive during the war he was experiencing hell he had seen sights and was in an environment of pure terror and distress.
Q: war Their commander was a middle-aged corporal-red-eyed, scrawny, though as dried beef, stick of war. He had been wounded four times-and patched up, and sent back to war…………(53) The two scouts who had ditched Billy and Weary had just been shot. They had been lying in ambush for Germans.(54)
A: war (he’s a loser + victim in this case)
After the war Billy was alone without people to turn to,connect to and or rely on. He was lost at war. Until he met ex-captain Eliot Rosewater. Eliot introduced Billy science-fiction books by Kilgore Trout. When he was Back in Germany, Edgar Derby spent a lot of time with Bill then remembers his death which has not yet happened. Billy then continues to time travel. He then meets his fiance Valencia Merble to confer about Kilgore Trout with Rosewater. After meeting Valencia Billy goes on to time travel to Tralfamadore where he learns that there are seven sexes amongst the Tralfamadorians.
Transition But there was a difference between the two circumstances. Billy was deeply affected by his time in the war, so effected that he had created the tralfamadorians and his adventure with them to tralfamadore as an escape as a result of the struggles that he had faced in the war.
C: Tralfamadore (he’s treated great as a captive) When Billy is in tralfamadore he is treated differently then he was treated a captive at war. With Montana Wildhack Billy is happier in captivity he is not on earth because fearing death but instead he is living his life in his own fantasy. Though Billy is keeped naked in captivity by the aliens he is. Q: Tralfamadore in tralfamadore he's being introduced to a new way of thinking and the way the tralfamadorians look at life and death. The tralfamadorians look at life as not such a scary thing as we do the look at death as just another thing Billy already knows how he's going to die. Life on earth (the real world ) is much different that the life that Billy is living in his mind yet we see many of the same points and many recurrences of his past life with in his ;life with the tralfamadorians.
A: Tralfamadore (in his mind, he’s re-written his life story and being a captive is good) Tralfamadore is his “Happy place” where Billy is able to escape his war trauma by creating a world in his mind where death is not a big fear.
Wrap us. (This is how he’s dealing with his war experience!!!)
The repeated image of the tralfamadorians is significant to Billy’s PTSD because they are like the Germans in war, in that they both keep him captive. When the tralfamadorians take Billy along with Montana Wildhack to the geodesic dome on Tralfamadore they keep him captive in a zoo for them to mate. They don't allow Billy to make any choices of his own, just as the germans held Billy and the other prisoners at war in an empty Dresden slaughterhouse.
Topic Sentence about a new philosophy of life death and time When Billy is on Tralfamadore he is introduced to a new philosophy of death and time. Instead all points in time exists at the same time, therefore nothing really occurs in a specific order, there for nothing can be changed and there is no real death. Billy reminds us of this in the book by telling us that there are moments when we are dead or unborn, but those moments exist alongside our own living experiences. Vonnegut tries to comfort us through the character of Billy by getting the message across that we should not fear death. C: war (traumatized by death)
Q: war
A: war (he’s a loser + victim in this case)
Transition
C: Tralfamadore (he’s taught that death isn’t to be feared)
Q: Tralfamadore
A: Tralfamadore (in his mind, he’s re-written his life story and death is no big deal)
Wrap us. (This is how he’s dealing with his war experience!!!)
The tralfamadorians views on the universe “Billy pilgrim says that the universe does not look like a lot of bright little dots to the creatures from tralfamadore. He states that the creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going………. Tralfamadorians don't see human beings as two legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes “with babies legs at one end and old peoples legs at the other.” The Tralfamadorians don't see human beings as people