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Wednesday, 11•19•14
Reading Response Essay: "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
War is an experience that few can truly understand. In the book "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Billy Pilgrim, experiences the firebombing of the German city of Dresden during World War Two. He later claims to have been abducted by an alien race from the planet of Tralfamadore. The book shows how war desensitizes people to death through Billy Pilgrim realizing that death is not the end of knowing somebody.
Billy Pilgrim is desensitized to death in the book from his otherworldly experiences. When he describes his abduction by the Tralfamadorians, they tell him that they pity humans for not being able to see time more than one moment at once. It is illustrated in the book how Tralfamadorians do not mourn the dead:
The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies, he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral...It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone, it is gone forever."
This shows how Billy does not look at death as the end of experiences with a person, and therefore is not saddened by death. In addition, whenever death is mentioned throughout the book, he thinks of the Tralfamadorian mantra "So it goes," which is meant to illustrate that every event is just another point in time, no more important than any other. Billy Pilgrim is desensitized to violence because of his being abducted by the Trafalmadorians.
Billy Pilgrim is also desensitized to death from war. When describing a war reenactment, Billy thinks, "The umpire had comical news. The congregation had been theoretically spotted by a theoretical enemy. They were all theoretically dead now...What a Tralfamadorian adventure with death that had been, to be dead and to eat at the same time. This shows how Billy looks at death casually, relating it to an experience that is so routine. Also, Billy is not disturbed by death multiple times in the book, showing how he is not saddened by it because he has seen it happen so nonchalantly.
Billy Pilgrim has been numbed to the sadness of death. He has been led to believe that death is routine by constantly being exposed to it, during the war, specifically the firebombing of Dresden. He thinks he was abducted by the alien Tralfamadorians, and taught that death was just another event, not the end of anything. This book taught me how even though death is the last you will se of a person, you can always experience more things about that person. In battle, people's lives end often, and instantly. But they exist just the same to you if you do not know that they are dead. People are only to you what you remember of them. People are only gone when you forget them.
Billy Pilgrim is desensitized to death in the book from his otherworldly experiences. When he describes his abduction by the Tralfamadorians, they tell him that they pity humans for not being able to see time more than one moment at once. It is illustrated in the book how Tralfamadorians do not mourn the dead:
The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies, he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral...It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone, it is gone forever."
This shows how Billy does not look at death as the end of experiences with a person, and therefore is not saddened by death. In addition, whenever death is mentioned throughout the book, he thinks of the Tralfamadorian mantra "So it goes," which is meant to illustrate that every event is just another point in time, no more important than any other. Billy Pilgrim is desensitized to violence because of his being abducted by the Trafalmadorians.
Billy Pilgrim is also desensitized to death from war. When describing a war reenactment, Billy thinks, "The umpire had comical news. The congregation had been theoretically spotted by a theoretical enemy. They were all theoretically dead now...What a Tralfamadorian adventure with death that had been, to be dead and to eat at the same time. This shows how Billy looks at death casually, relating it to an experience that is so routine. Also, Billy is not disturbed by death multiple times in the book, showing how he is not saddened by it because he has seen it happen so nonchalantly.
Billy Pilgrim has been numbed to the sadness of death. He has been led to believe that death is routine by constantly being exposed to it, during the war, specifically the firebombing of Dresden. He thinks he was abducted by the alien Tralfamadorians, and taught that death was just another event, not the end of anything. This book taught me how even though death is the last you will se of a person, you can always experience more things about that person. In battle, people's lives end often, and instantly. But they exist just the same to you if you do not know that they are dead. People are only to you what you remember of them. People are only gone when you forget them.
