Saving Private Billy

War. War is the event that has been going on since the sight of power. There is no denying it, our world has changed because of it. As I continue through Slaughterhouse-Five I understand more on Billy’s experience in the frontline. I have to agree with the English prisoner that gave Billy the morphine of how it’s the children that are left to pay for the consequences of the adults, in this case the soldiers because of politicians. For the ruling powers which declare wars, these events are just games to them, to show who has the better swing.

I would like to relate this to the movie “Saving Private Ryan” in a specific scene where Captain John Miller’s squadron is sent to find private Ryan and are sorting out the fallen soldier’s dog tags to see if his name is there. What is so special about that scene is that to the soldiers sorting out the tags its just like a game to them while wounded young soldiers are walking beside them shamed at them. This relates of how politicians don’t have to worry about dying and just have to “deal” the squadrons to the battlefield.

 

Further more, I have just read half way through chapter 5 and I have to say I would like to just finish the book in another sitting. 

Change the Present, Change the Future

Haven’t you always wished you could go back in time and fix a mistake you committed or just simply revive it for the sake of it, well I have. Somehow Billy is lucky to have this talent, even thought he might not enjoy it so much. Again Billy starts travelling back in time and finally Vonnegut describes us how Billy met and got captured by the Tralfamadorians. The one thing that also keeps me sometimes up at night is why things are what they are, or almost always, what if I had chosen this instead of that. This is what Billy asked the Tralfamadorians when they kidnapped him. “There is no why”. (Page 77.) This is why humans, because of curiosity.  It’s instinct, from the very start of our lives we are searching for answers, we just want to know it all and find explanations. Instead the Tralfamadorians simply say that things are what they are.

I would like to compare this with George Orwell’s “1984”. The protagonist, Winston Smith, lives in a totalitarian world where everything is because it is, just as the Tralfamadorians say. Winston becomes curious about stories he heard of events that happened that his government changed because of the higher power’s liking. This leads Winston to revolt and rebel against his government in order to free the people of brainwash and communism.

What if the Tralfamadorians are right, existence is just because its there and there is not explanation? After all, we still haven’t found the meaning of life. 

Time for a Re-Model

Chapter 3 of Slaughterhouse-Five is merely a finale to chapter 2, in my opinion. The same transitions of Billy’s time travel between past to present or present to past is seen to be confusing. I have found it difficult to understand if Vonnegut states that the present is Billy’s war experience or if it is when he is an optometrist in the 60’s. With these transitions I can say that this novel has a circular time frame, going back and forth and starting all over again having consequences in his past, present and future. 

Well I couldn’t say consequences but more as connections because each action Billy does in the past will then time travel him to the future of an exact moment where the action is repeated. Each time he goes to sleep in the past or present, he time travels in the future or past by being woken up, he was sleeping both in the past and future. So what I am getting to is that Billy’s time travel “talent” works when a specific type of anecdote that Billy has in his life happens. Specifically these flashbacks or time travels occur to help Billy remember and to fix the mistakes he committed, that is why Billy has the poster:

“GOD GRANT ME

THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT

THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE,

COURAGE

TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN,

AND WISDOM ALWAYS

TO TELL THE

DIFFERENCE.”

Which he needs to overcome is mistakes.

Tralfamadorian Beliefs

Completing Chapter 2 of Slaughterhouse-Five, the story begins to unwrap itself. A new character is presented, Billy. Billy, after serving WWII, begins to ‘‘lose it’’. With his wife’s death and an airplane crash that left him changed, Billy starts to tell stories of his experience with the tralfamadorians. These tralfamadorians are aliens that he claims kidnapped him stopping time and space so they could teach him their culture and planet. I was interested of how Billy described them, small, green with eyes on their palms that could see in four dimensions.

Alas, how Billy described what they do when they die is that they simply live on in the past and future. I would like to compare these beliefs with the many diverse religions and faiths we have here on earth. The Christian belief, mine, says that at the end of someone’s life, they either go to heaven if they were good or to hell if they committed sins. For me this is a bit weird and I don’t really believe in it, don’t tell my God. This pretty much is the same for Islamic religion. On the other hand, Buddhism and Hinduism believe in reincarnation, which is after you die, you are able to come back to life in a different body, not necessarily a human. Finally there is another religion that states that if you die, you can come back to life with your dead body, something like a zombie. I am not sure which specific religion or faith that is but it is from somewhere in Africa. In the end I saw that Billy was really interested in the tralfamadorian beliefs and it leaves me wondering, will Billy somehow show proof of this experience? 

Why Should I

After further reading Slaughterhouse-Five I started to understand more, not only of the author but as well as the story. One interesting point I read in this book was the part where Kurt visited his friend O'Hare to share and remember stories of the war, his wife Mary was pretty upset by something. After understanding her for being upset,  I would be also be mad and feeling cheated on. Why should someone pay for someone else's actions? This brings me back to many childhood memories. Many occasions have I been blamed for an incident that I didn't do just like when my sister broke an expensive vase and blamed it on me having me grounded for a month without my precious Game Cube. Of course this is not as bad as going to a war which you technically didn't start but the unfairness is pretty much the same.

Remembering Ain't Easy

I started reading "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut up to the first chapter. I got the impression from the author that he was writing some kind of autobiography, not of his whole life but of his days on the front line during World War II. It struck me that he couldn't remember almost anything of those days where his life was at risk. Not even his friend O'Hare could remember. I have seen many documentaries of how many soldiers come back with this psychological illness where they can't think of anything else other than their experience on the field. So that makes me come to the conclusion that maybe the experience of these guys was so bad they decided unconsciously to forget it, eradicate it for their own good. Even though I think they should remember to pass on what they say and experienced so other people know what horrible incident happened so it doesn't happen again. I would like to link this to the attacks of 9/11 as I saw the 10th anniversary memorial. Just because of incidents like this people should remember for the future knowledge. With knowledge people might learn what to do differently so it doesn't happen again.