Slaughterhouse
Five: A Novel of Opposites
Chad Hines
The Allied
firebombing of Dresden has been called the worst and most unnecessary air raid
in military history. The German city
was home to no military bases or stations, but on February 13, 1945, death
rained down from the air on nearly 135,000 people, most of them civilians,
compared to the 74,000 deaths caused by the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima
(Novels 270). Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a
Allied prisoner of war during this raid, hidden underground in an abandoned
slaughterhouse. After surviving the
war, Vonnegut came home to the United States to become an author. Though he had published several books before
Slaughterhouse Five, this book became his most famous and best-selling
book. Slaughterhouse Five was
Vonnegut’s breakthrough work because he finally addressed the most distressing
and pivotal point in his life, the Dresden firebombing (Novels 270).
Vonnegut writes in the first chapter
that he was once given advice against writing an anti-war novel, because
“…there would always be wars, [and] that they were as easy to stop as glaciers”
(Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 3).
However, rather than writing an anti-war novel, Vonnegut writes a
response to the tragedy of war through the eyes of a soldier (Novels 272). Vonnegut narrates the story of Billy
Pilgrim, a soldier who went through the same experiences as Vonnegut did. Narrating the story of someone else allows
Vonnegut distance and separation from the painful events at Dresden (Harris). Through Billy’s story, Vonnegut introduces
opposing ideas throughout his novel, creating tension between conflicting
forces and philosophies. The opposing
ideas in Slaughterhouse Five are differing views of time, and
inconsistencies between “Tralfamadorianism” and Christianity.
Vonnegut turns the traditional, linear
view of time upside down in Slaughterhouse Five. Billy has the unique trait to come “unstuck
in time,” or time travel, though it is involuntary. Slaughterhouse Five is actually multiple stories told in
parts because Billy becomes “unstuck” in time from one break to another. So, rather than each moment coming once and
then passing away forever, Billy can relive moments from his past and preview
those of his future.
During
one episode of his life, Billy is abducted by aliens from the planet of Tralfamadore. On this planet, there are four dimensions,
with the additional one being time. The
aliens explain to Billy that time is different for Tralfamadorians and earthlings
because in the fourth dimension time is spatial, and one can visit a moment in
time like earthlings visit locations.
Here is the first major clash of ideas;
Linear time vs. Spatial Time.
While ridiculous sounding, Vonnegut builds an argument for spatial time
through Billy’s story. By advancing
each story in pieces, he creates the effect that each story is happening
simultaneously. This agrees with the
Tralfamadorian view that all time exists in the present (Harris). Vonnegut also undercuts the reliability of
linear time; all attempts to piece
together one part of Billy’s life fail, due to conflicting facts and vague
references. Vonnegut also uses this
technique to deny the “pastness” of Billy’s past and the “futureness” of his
future, thus making all events present (Harris). The many stories of Billy Pilgrim also serve another purpose for
Vonnegut. These “chopped up” stories
lose their rational explanations and values, and portray the chaos and
senselessness of war (Reed).
By
creating this idea of “spatial time,” Vonnegut has relieved some of the sting
that is associated with death. It is
impossible to remove death all together from his novel because death is so real
to him, so instead he creates a new dimension where no one really dies because
they are forever alive and well in many other moments of time (Harris). Sometimes, though, even a fourth dimension
is not enough cushion for Vonnegut. The
actual firebombing of Dresden is the only part of the war that is remembered,
rather than experienced through time travel.
Time travel would make this event too real, too immediate for Pilgrim,
and Vonnegut, but a memory has a twenty-three year buffer (Harris).
By
investigating the time shifts themselves, it is easier to understand what is
going on in Billy’s mind. In such
sequence of shifts, Billy goes from a POW shower to a baby being bathed by his
mother. He then travels back to the
1960’s on a hot golf course. While
picked up his “trapped” golf ball, Billy is transported to the time he was
abducted by a Tralfamadorian saucer, where a conversation about the nature of
time ensues. During this conversation,
Billy learns that not only is time spatial, but it is pre-determined, meaning
that what happens was set before it happened.
This is brought up when Billy questions the aliens about Dresden. The reader sees that the end product of this
time shift, from a POW shower through infancy into adulthood, is questions
about Dresden (Schatt). Vonnegut’s
statement here is that all things eventually lead Billy back to Dresden and the
war.
Whether the fourth dimension
really exists or not, Vonnegut shows that for Billy time travel is a metaphor
for the loneliness and separation he feels toward the rest of society because
of his encounter with immense cruelty and violence (Novels 263). It’s involuntary nature forces him to relive
his gruesome past. This is a parallel
to Vonnegut’s own life. His memory
constantly reminds him of his life as a soldier and the horrors associated with
war.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “Only a
first-rate intelligence can hold two opposing ideas and still be able to
function.” (Novels 274) Billy has
suffered a breakdown ever since his encounter with Dresden and
Tralfamadore. Part of this mental
breakdown is due to the opposing ideas of “Tralfamadorianism” and
Christianity. Tralfamadorianism is the
philosophy held by Billy’s alien friends, which teaches that each moment in
time is pre-structured with no purpose, but is totally random. But, despite the randomness of the moment,
it cannot be changed because it simply exists the way it is. On the other hand, Christianity teaches that
God is in sovereign control, and He brings each action to pass and has planned
out all of time. While these may not
look so different, Vonnegut makes it clear that he does not agree with Christianity. By giving the Tralfamadorians a position of
superiority over humans, Vonnegut uses them to criticize society. Billy relates once that “On Tralfamadore,
there isn’t much interest in Jesus Christ” (Vonnegut Slaughterhouse
210). Rather, the Tralfamadorians
consider Darwin the most innovative and influential human. To further tarnish the image of
Christianity, Pilgrim reads a sci-fi novel in which there is a parody of the
Gospel of Christ. Instead of Jesus
being the Son of God, He is a bum, a “nobody.”
Once He is crucified, God’s voice booms down from heaven and says “I am
adopting this bum, this nobody as My Son,” therefore everyone is required to
treat Jesus and all other bums with kindness and respect (Novels 276).
These
statements about religion in Slaughterhouse Five also line up with
Vonnegut’s personal life. In his
autobiography, Vonnegut goes through his family tree, naming off each
grand-parent and parent as an atheist.
One uncle even self-wrote his funeral speech, claiming with confidence
that God is a hoax. Vonnegut eventually
breaks the cycle, he is a self-titled “Christ-worshipping Agnostic (one who
thinks God cannot be proved true or false).”
He was asked to preach one Palm Sunday in an Episcopalian Church in New
York, and he ended his sermon by gibing himself this title(Vonnegut Palm
327). It seems Mr. Vonnegut himself has
problems with opposing ideas!
Even
though Vonnegut attacks Christianity through parody gospels and alien
civilizations, it seems as if Billy is a little unsure of his position. While accepting the Tralfamadorian
philosophies intellectually, the ideas fail to bring any relief to Billy
(Schatt). Though Billy proclaims the
Tralfamadorian message, he himself cannot seem to find relief from Dresden. If he fully accepts the Tralfamadorianism
view of time, then he could simply choose to look forward to moments beyond or
before Dresden, but instead he feels emotional pain while reliving his prisoner
days. This can also be seen by the
timing of Billy’s time travels. When it
is the night before the bombing, Billy calmly relays that soon 135,000 people
will die, but then he becomes “unstuck” once more right before the bombing
starts, suggesting that he cannot deal with this traumatic situation (Schatt).
Despite
their differences, there is one area where Tralfamadorianism and Christianity
align; whether each moment is randomly
pre-determined or the will of an Almighty Creator, the human is relieved of any
responsibility (Novels 275). If God
wants to destroy Dresden like He did Sodom, then humans can do nothing to
change that. Or if the somehow Dresden
was destined to be bombed to pieces, then again no human interaction could
alter destiny’s path. If all actions
are pre-determined, then no one should worry about their death (Novels
265). This view is also shared by
Vonnegut, as shown in a speech he gave, he remarked, “If there weren’t any
hydrogen bombs, death would still be after you. And what is death but an absence of life?…What is all this fuss
about?” (Vonnegut Fates 139).
Both
of these opposing viewpoints involve pre-destination. Any form of pre-destination cancels out free will. Here is another pair of opposing ideas
within Slaughterhouse Five.
Vonnegut challenges the idea of free will again through the
Tralfamadorians when an alien tells Billy that, “I’ve visited thirty one
inhabited planets in the Universe…and only on Earth is there any talk of free
will.” (Vonnegut Slaughterhouse 86)
Billy seems to have believed otherwise, as he responds by asking if it
is useless to try to prevent war on Earth (Vonnegut Slaughterhouse
117). Billy’s idea of free will can be
understood more fully by looking at a plaque that hangs in his office. It contains the following prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the
things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the
wisdom to know the difference” (Vonnegut Slaughterhouse 60). This seems to satisfy both sides by
involving free will to change some things, but supports pre-destination by
acknowledging some things cannot be changed.
Finally,
when Billy arrives back from war and then later his abduction, he is full of
opposing ideas. Vonnegut takes this
opportunity to set up Billy as society’s “savior” with two gospels, the Gospel
of Tralfamadore and the Gospel of the “Bum” Christ (Novels 276). To make this detail more concrete, Billy is
compared to Christ throughout Slaughterhouse Five, with three distinct
allusions. In the POW camp, Billy hears
“Golgotha” sounds, referring to the place where Jesus was crucified. Billy can also “resurrect” himself, by
traveling through spatial time from after his death back to life. Finally, Billy can also predict his death
because he has seen it many times, again thanks to his ability to become
“unstuck in time” (Novels 276).
Towards
the end of the novel, it finally seems that Vonnegut is content with what he
has created in Billy Pilgrim, after rejecting traditional Christianity and free
will. But in the final chapters, we see
the irony and foolishness in Billy’s actions.
Once Billy decides to save the world with his dual gospels, he becomes a
“Billy Graham” type of traveling preacher, telling everyone about his truths of
Dresden and Tralfamadore. All this
occurs right in the height of the Vietnam War.
Billy ignores Vietnam, claiming he can do nothing, while teaching that
what happened at Dresden is not as terrible as it first seemed because time is
spatial, and those who lost their lives now live on in the fourth
dimension. The irony lies in the fact
that Billy is preaching about Dresden, something that cannot be changed. All the while the Vietnam War is raging,
which can still be stopped, but Billy accepts it as something he can’t change
(Novels 277). Thus, Vonnegut has
successfully torn apart and ridiculed everything that he built up in his novel,
except that war is chaotic and senseless.
In
his story, Vonnegut states “I think of how useless the Dresden part of my
memory has been, and yet how tempting Dresden has been to write about”
(Vonnegut Slaughterhouse 2).
This quote explains and summarizes the main point of Vonnegut’s
novel. Dresden and World War II are
ever-present in the minds of those that were affected by it, yet little can be
done to alleviate the pain, both physically and mentally. Vonnegut’s novel actually is an anti-war
novel, not by showing the cruel atrocities of war, but rather the effects it
has on “survivors,” who just move from a physical battle to a mental one. If there is one issue that Vonnegut does not
attack with opposing viewpoints, it is the one that states war is stupid,
pointless, and cruel, yet it is inevitable.
Works Cited
Harris,
Charles B., “Time, Uncertainty, and
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: A Reading of
‘Slaughterhouse Five,’” Farmington Hills:
Gale Group. October, 2001. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/DC/
Reed,
Peter J., “Authenticity and
Relevance: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse
Five,” Farmington Hills: Gale Group.
October, 2001.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/DC/
Schatt,
Stanley, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Farmington Hills: Gale Group. October, 2001.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/DC/
“Slaughterhouse
Five” Novels For Students. Vol. 3 1998 ed.
Vonnegut Jr., Kurt. Fates Worse Than Death. New York:
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1991
---, Palm Sunday. New York:
Delacorte Press, 1981
---, Slaughterhouse
Five. New York: Dell Publishing, 1969
