Blog Report 2 - Zach Vance
The book Slaughterhouse Five (also known as The Children's Crusade) was first published in 1969, many years before the term post-traumatic stress disorder was even coined. As such, our own connections between the text and the concept of PTSD seem to be ones that we make from our own cultural context, and have no relation to the original background and intention of the narrative. But Vonnegut lived through the horrors of the Dresden bombing, just as many others did. He saw what happened, and more specifically what it did to people. Even if we didn't have a name for the psychological condition we call PTSD, that doesn't mean it didn't affect people. With this in mind, I believe that the character Billy Pilgrim is portrayed as living with a form of PTSD, which causes intermittent flashbacks to his time in Germany. He comprehends these flashbacks as literal time travel, which stems from his experience reading the science fiction novels of Kilgore Trout.
Vonnegut never explicitly states that Billy's time travel experiences are anything but, as the story is told exclusively from the perspective of Billy. Anything that he believes is happening is presented to us in the narrative as fact, and because he is such an unreliable narrator, it's difficult to discern fact from fiction (within the context of the story). In chapter 5, Billy finds himself in a veteran's hospital, which he apparently committed himself to three years after the war. It's unclear as to why he committed himself, but from Billy's perspective, there is rarely a why. He has adopted the fatalistic view of the Tralfamadorians that whatever he does is done because it is what he was meant to do. He knew from his time traveling experiences that on a certain date at a certain time he would check himself into a hospital and spend a certain amount of time there before leaving. So it goes. But the doctors of this hospital come to a conclusion. Billy Pilgrim is undeniably mentally ill, a sentiment that is later (though, from a telling perspective, earlier) shared by his daughter. But Vonnegut mentions something that I believe to be very important, when speaking about the doctors' opinion of Billy's condition:
"They didn't think it had anything to do with the war. They were sure Billy was going to pieces because his father had thrown him into the deep end of the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool when he was a little boy, and had then taken him to the rim of the Grand Canyon."
Here, Vonnegut implies that it was (or at least may be) the war that is causing Billy's current state, but the doctors aren't seeing it. They prefer to look at parental connections and childhood events, which is typical of psychoanalysis, especially of the 1940s. I believe that Vonnegut is hinting at the idea of mental trauma brought on by war, something he is more likely than most to have experienced.
But why time travel? If it truly is PTSD why doesn't Billy Pilgrim just think he's going crazy? To understand this, I believe we need to think about Kilgore Trout. Billy is first introduced to Trout while in the aforementioned veteran's hospital. It's implied he read (or was told of) many of Trout's novels, which are for the most part your standard pulp fiction material. One particular story, The Gospel from Outer Space, is given special attention. It is about an alien (who the narrator remarks is "shaped very much like a Tralfamadorian") who comes to Earth to study Christianity, specifically why it is so cruel. Here we have an alien who is detached from humanity, seeks to understand it scientifically, and subsequently finds it hard to do so, much like a Tralfamadorian. Later references to Trout's novels make mention of four-dimensional space, which the Tralfamadorians are said to occupy. So which is more likely: that Kilgore Trout happened to describe the defining characteristics of Tralfamadorians in his novels, or that Billy Pilgrim in his traumatized state has delusions of being abducted by the characters he has read about?
Later in his life, Billy meets Kilgore Trout and befriends him. Billy invites him to his 18th wedding anniversary, and while there has something similar to a flashback or panic attack, and becomes visibly distressed. The panic eventually fades and his wife Valencia rushes to his side. While Billy is being tended to by his wife, Trout conjures up a very bizarre theory as to what happened: "You saw through a time window." Without knowing it, Kilgore Trout just eluded to the phenomenon that we and Billy Pilgrim had been experiencing throughout the entire novel. But again, which is more likely: that this idea of time windows happens to have a connection to Billy Pilgrim's life, or that Billy Pilgrim made it a connection. What if Pilgrim, who sees backwards and forwards in time constantly through his flashbacks and delusions (respectively), is suddenly introduced to the concept of time windows, and comes to the conclusion that he must be time travelling. Subsequently, he justifies this time travel through his interactions with the Tralfamadorians.
Vonnegut never explicitly states that Billy's time travel experiences are anything but, as the story is told exclusively from the perspective of Billy. Anything that he believes is happening is presented to us in the narrative as fact, and because he is such an unreliable narrator, it's difficult to discern fact from fiction (within the context of the story). In chapter 5, Billy finds himself in a veteran's hospital, which he apparently committed himself to three years after the war. It's unclear as to why he committed himself, but from Billy's perspective, there is rarely a why. He has adopted the fatalistic view of the Tralfamadorians that whatever he does is done because it is what he was meant to do. He knew from his time traveling experiences that on a certain date at a certain time he would check himself into a hospital and spend a certain amount of time there before leaving. So it goes. But the doctors of this hospital come to a conclusion. Billy Pilgrim is undeniably mentally ill, a sentiment that is later (though, from a telling perspective, earlier) shared by his daughter. But Vonnegut mentions something that I believe to be very important, when speaking about the doctors' opinion of Billy's condition:
"They didn't think it had anything to do with the war. They were sure Billy was going to pieces because his father had thrown him into the deep end of the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool when he was a little boy, and had then taken him to the rim of the Grand Canyon."
Here, Vonnegut implies that it was (or at least may be) the war that is causing Billy's current state, but the doctors aren't seeing it. They prefer to look at parental connections and childhood events, which is typical of psychoanalysis, especially of the 1940s. I believe that Vonnegut is hinting at the idea of mental trauma brought on by war, something he is more likely than most to have experienced.
But why time travel? If it truly is PTSD why doesn't Billy Pilgrim just think he's going crazy? To understand this, I believe we need to think about Kilgore Trout. Billy is first introduced to Trout while in the aforementioned veteran's hospital. It's implied he read (or was told of) many of Trout's novels, which are for the most part your standard pulp fiction material. One particular story, The Gospel from Outer Space, is given special attention. It is about an alien (who the narrator remarks is "shaped very much like a Tralfamadorian") who comes to Earth to study Christianity, specifically why it is so cruel. Here we have an alien who is detached from humanity, seeks to understand it scientifically, and subsequently finds it hard to do so, much like a Tralfamadorian. Later references to Trout's novels make mention of four-dimensional space, which the Tralfamadorians are said to occupy. So which is more likely: that Kilgore Trout happened to describe the defining characteristics of Tralfamadorians in his novels, or that Billy Pilgrim in his traumatized state has delusions of being abducted by the characters he has read about?
Later in his life, Billy meets Kilgore Trout and befriends him. Billy invites him to his 18th wedding anniversary, and while there has something similar to a flashback or panic attack, and becomes visibly distressed. The panic eventually fades and his wife Valencia rushes to his side. While Billy is being tended to by his wife, Trout conjures up a very bizarre theory as to what happened: "You saw through a time window." Without knowing it, Kilgore Trout just eluded to the phenomenon that we and Billy Pilgrim had been experiencing throughout the entire novel. But again, which is more likely: that this idea of time windows happens to have a connection to Billy Pilgrim's life, or that Billy Pilgrim made it a connection. What if Pilgrim, who sees backwards and forwards in time constantly through his flashbacks and delusions (respectively), is suddenly introduced to the concept of time windows, and comes to the conclusion that he must be time travelling. Subsequently, he justifies this time travel through his interactions with the Tralfamadorians.
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