Does Billy pilgrim really time travel? In Kurt Vonnegut's book, Slaughter-House Five, Billy pilgrim is 'looking bad" at war. time travel is nothing but an allusion to Billy. He believes all this is really happening. When Billy hits his head for the second time, he came up with the idea that he is traveling through time. also that the alien Tralfamadorians have kidnapped him and have him captured in their space ship. Time travel to Billy is just his happy place when he gets scared or remembers a scary time in his life. On page 44 Billy is underwater and hears beautiful music play. Loosing conciseness he lets the music play and he "time jumps" to 1965. In 1965, to visit his mother in nursing home. Visiting his moms takes his mind off what's really going on. From there he moves place to place "in time". When he time travels to another place no one really knows what is real life or all in Bill's head. The "aliens" or in real life the Germans use his fear to keep him trapped "in time".
The effect "time travel" puts on Billy pilgrim is extreme. He believes these events are really happening. That he is "looking bad" to a past event. The time travel makes his memory's to war or time with his family seem real. The alien Tralfamadorians are in this case his friends. They "kidnap" him and show him different times in his life. The Tralfamadorians replace the fear with a memory or false event he goes to. Slaughter-house five, emphasizes throughout the book how Billy Time Travels every time a bad situation or event happens.
Throughout the book, we can connect pieces together to figure out what happened throughout Billy's life. Billy travels to different times in his life from birth to death. What do you think this statement, "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." means to you? Does Billy ever become stuck in time?
I think the quote "Billy Pillgram has become unstuck in time" means that his mind is free in the sense that he can connect things from the past a future very easiy. I also think it means that he has trouble knowing the difference between whats real and whats fake which is why this book and be so confusing and hard to understand.
ReplyDeleteHey! Wow, that is a very interesting post. I personally don't believe that Billy is time traveling. I think he has Post Dramatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) and is reliving the moments of his life that once comforted him.
ReplyDeleteThis really made me think about these things from the book. I like what Maddie said, how his mind is free because he connects to the past so easily. I do not believe he actually is time traveling, but this is all in his mind and it has badly messed up his head from the war.
ReplyDeleteTo me, that quote means that his character is now coming alive and his story is about to be told. I agree with Ashley about how he's really not traveling in time. The biggest clue for that is that there's no way he was really abducted by aliens. The aliens were representing the Germans in war, so I think he just kept having flashbacks of war in different situations.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Billy is time traveling I just think that he is mentally escaping where he is at in the war at the moment. Since I believe when Billy is at war is the main timeline I personally justify that his "time travel" is just him going to a happier place than where he is at while in war.
ReplyDelete