Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Billy repeatedly has flashbacks and flashforwards throughout the novel, and claims they have occurred ever since he encountered the Tralfamadorians. The instances (I'm going to call the time-traveling "instances" so i can type less) also happen in the middle of a different time period, and often return to the original time period once the instance has run it's course. My only questions was how would an alien abduction cause such instances to happen with a human? The answer lies within the Tralfamadorians, for they "spend eternity looking at pleasant moments...[and] ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones" (Vonnegut 117). This lifestyle is one that Billy has tried to make his own; however, he can not get a firm grasp on it, for he is imperfect like a human. The Tralfamadorians were praised by Billy (and myself for that matter) as highly intelligent and nearly flawless, and Billy wanted to replicate them in order to make his life more fulfilling. With this thinking, Billy's instances become defined as him attempting to look at his life in moments, specifically the happy moments. Since he is imperfect and flawed, he lives in his bad moments (like the war and his time in the mental hospital) temporarily before he escapes into times that bring him joy and comfort. He can only stay looking at these happy moments for a limited time, before reality pulls him back into the bleakness that his life is in that particular instance. The idea that Billy is mimicking the Tralfamadorians is again supported by his depression the reader sees him in during many of his instances. During his depressing instances, Billy realizes that he isn't perfect enough to only focus on the good moments in life, so he becomes indifferent to his surroundings and does not care how the dismal instance plays out. These are my observations, let's see how close I get to the truth...
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