"Billy Pilgrim was Cinderella, and Cinderella was Billy Pilgrim."

We have all heard of Cinderella. You probably owned the movie as a child, read the story, or at least know what it's about. The girl who after living a nightmare, gets the perfect life. Who would have thought that Billy Pilgrim has Cinderella's life? Not once did I see this coming, but it is undoubtedly true.

Just like Cinderella, Billy's father died when he was very young - curiously, Billy's dad died in 1944, the same year in which Vonnegut's mother died. As they grew older, both Cinderella and Pilgrim lived in constant battle. Cinderella had to struggle with her stepmother's and stepsisters' abusiveness, while Billy had to fight in World War II. Then, while at the prison camp, Billy decided to steal a pair of boots. The first one he tries on fit him perfectly, just like Cinderella with the glass slipper. Later on, they both marry and get great lives. Cinderella marries the prince and lives happily ever after in a castle, nowhere near her evil stepmom and stepsisters. Billy Pilgrim marries a rich woman. She is not pretty, but thanks to her, Billy is able to become a wealthy and successful person.

Billy and the rest of the American soldiers in the prison camp are taken to Dresden. Ironically, they are told they wil be safe in Dresden because it is undefended. The English envied the Americans for being able to go to such a wonderful place. The Americans were ecstatic to finally go to a place without war. All of them, except for Billy, were completely oblivious to the fact that in a few days or weeks, there would be a bombing: The Dresden Bombing (for information about this go to this blog entry). The English must have felt a pang of relief when they found out about this bombing. Their lives had been spared. What if it were them who were sent to Dresden? Then everything would have been different.

Billy already knows how and when he'll die. Thus, he probably had no fear at all when Dresden was bombed. He knew his time to die hadn't come yet. What would it be like to always know what is gonna happen next? It would definitely take everything away from life. You know when you've heard a joke so many times that it becomes boring? Life would be this way. You always know everything that is about to happen. There would be no surprises, no laughter, and no happiness. Yes, there would be no grief as well, but all this would make life monotonous until the very end.

If I knew from the start when I would die, I would live my life to the fullest until the end. I would take greater risks, knowing there'd be no way they would take me to my end. However, Billy can't do this because he believes his life has already been planned out. He doesn't want to change anything. So knowing when he'll die doesn't benefit him in any way.  It even makes him openly allow somebody to kill him when the time comes.

I used to believe that it would be great to know the future, to avoid all those surprisingly bad moments. However, I no loger do. Life would be completely boring and predictable. It is much better to have life surprise you all the time, even if some surprises are not good. This way you'll also have constant unexpected happinesses, making life worth living.

"I Suppose That the Idea of Preventing War on Earth is Stupid Too"

Many people view war as something necessary and vital for society. Others see it as the perfect way to make decisions, letting the most powerful side win. Some like war because it is their source of income. Several loathe it because they lost a loved one to it. Most people, like me, hate it because they watch the news and know what is going on. But just a few despise it, because they were there.

Billy Pilgrim is on of these. He describes it as a "senseless slaughter" and is sickened by the horrible deeds done at war. These were awful. Soldiers would boil innocent school girls and kill men for no reason. At one point, one of Billy's colleagues is shot. Yes, this is bad, but it seems nowhere out of the ordinary. However, to make matters worse, soldiers pinned a target on him. This greatly enraged me. I felt a huge hatred towards these sick men while reading this. Not only are they killing somebody, but they are also making a game out of it. How messed up can you be to do something as senseless and idiotic as this?

When describing his comrades, Billy says they "were proud of fighting pure evil at the time." The phrase "at the time" demonstrates that this is no longer the case. Former soldiers are not proud of the terrible things they did at war. As one of them, Billy desires peace on Earth and even asks the Tralfamadorians to help him attain it. I like this about Billy. He is constantly trying to improve society and feels like this is in his hands. This is demonstrated with him joining the army -and this way helping his country- and afterwards writing letters to enlighten people about the Tralfamadorians' ideas. He believes the latter will help people understand everything better and improve their lives.

People in opposite sides of wars are unbelievably cruel to each other. This is why I was utterly shocked as I read about what a good friend a German was to the English in the war prison. He would visit and play with them, teach them, and play piano for them. He even says that if it weren't for them, he would go mad.

This is proof that although countries may be fighting and hating each other, this will never stop people from being friends with their country's enemy. In this case, even those who are fighting and are supposed to hate each other, have become friends. This is the country's fight, not theirs. They are doing the right thing and not letting a huge war between countries get to them personally and affect their relationships with others. This is something others should be able to do as well: Not let others' fights get to them.

“You guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people aren’t going to want to go on living.”

We see humans’ lives as the perfect ones. Most of us see nothing wrong with the way we are supposed to live, as well as the ideals and the rules we must follow. This is because we know no other way.  The Tralfamadorians, however, have a completely different way to live and view life. They see humans’ lives as something despicable.

True, they don’t’ have free will. This would make most people, if given the choice, choose Earth over Tralfmadore. Yet, there has to be a reason as to why, even though he’s living in a cage and watched all the time, Billy doesn’t like Earth any better than Tralfmadore.

We have gotten used to policies and restraints that would make no sense to any outsider. We are used to a life where we have to go to school in order to get into a university. But why do we have to go to a university? To be able to get a good job. We get a good job to live a good life. Yet, we have to spend all our time working and most people are not able to fully take advantage of what they have. They work, work, work. Always trying to get a better life, but then they die without ever being able to make good use of what they had. So it goes.

At the prison camp, Billy is asked how he lost his boots… only to realize he has no idea. For many, this would be strange and dumb. “Why doesn’t he remember? It was only a few weeks ago”, many would think. Some would even dare to diagnose him with memory diseases. Yet, I have learned from experience that it is hard to remember occurrences from traumatic events. I was at my club, El Nogal, when the bomb occurred. After almost twelve years, there are many details I can’t remember from this experience.  My memories are blurry and there are portions from that episode where I'm not aware of what happened. I can’t even recall how I got from a place to another in many cases. In fact, to fill in the empty spaces in my memory, I had to ask my family and my housekeeper about what they remembered. There is no way I could have recalled everything on my own. This is probably what happened to Billy after such shocking experiences at war.  It is something completely understandable in such circumstances.

While Billy is at the prison camp, he meets Edgar Derby. Derby expected to have become a commander or somebody important in the army by then, but he was a simple soldier, recognized by nobody. I believe this is my biggest fear. It would completely break me to reach an age where I thought I would have everything, and have nothing. I would feel like I’ve failed. This reminds me of a new song by Coldplay called “Paradise.” It’s about a woman who as a girl thought she would have everything when she grew up. However, she let life pass her by and then, the only way to get the life she always wanted, was in her dreams. I honestly hope this doesn’t happen to me. It would tear me apart. To avoid this, I must have clear priorities and live a good life. But, what is a good life?

“How nice – to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”

When we think of war, we think of brave, strong men astutely fighting… well at least I do. This is even what most movies show, fooling even soldiers themselves. As said by an imprisoned English colonel in Slaughterhouse-Five, “We’ve had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined it has been fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies.”  

This is completely true, most soldiers don’t even know what they’re doing until it’s all in their past. For example, it is explained that Billy’s friend from the veteran’s hospital killed a 14-year-old fireman after mistaking him for a German soldier. This is something I would never be able to get over. First of all, I’d never be able to kill somebody. Much less somebody who isn’t even my opponent. I’d feel guilty forever, always trying reverse time and change this.

I’m not able to travel in time, but Billy is. He goes to the future, to when Tralfamadorians abduct him. I would be completely terrified to have aliens take me from my house to their planet. It would be scary enough if a human kidnapped me and took me to his house. However in this case, it’s neither humans nor a place on Earth. It ‘s a group of strange-looking beings in a flying saucer that aren’t even able to talk without machines’ aid. Yet Billy seems completely calm. He even asks them for a book to read during the trip. And after reading a bit and disliking it, he takes the additional risk of requesting another one.

When Billy arrives at the war prison, he is given a small jacket that probably belonged to a child. Since it is so small on Billy, it tears at the back and the sleeves come off completely. This makes the German officers laugh hysterically. Then, while watching fellow prisoners perform Cinderella, a certain couplet causes Billy to laugh so uncontrollably that he has to be taken to the hospital.

Many readers would see these as absurd and implausible occurrences. However, I disagree with those who see it this way. War is a place where most of the time, people suffer. There are barely any happy moments. I know from experience that in hard or sad situations, even the smallest happy thing can make you laugh. Probably because it helps you forget your problems, even if it’s only for a second.  It’s much easier to make me laugh when I’m crying than when I’m not, probably for this reason. This is most likely what happened to the Germans officers and Billy then. If in ordinary situations people laughed so hard at these incidents, many would believe they’re crazy. However, in a war there are rarely any happy occurrences. Just the faintest hint of happiness or humor can make someone laugh hysterically. It’s one of the few happy moments they’ve had and it demonstrates that life is still bright.

"Here we are... trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."

What would it be like to be abducted be mysterious beings and have them completely change your view on life? I don't know, Billy Pilgrim would, though.  After all, he was taken by the Tralfamadorians. It's funny because he was completely aware of the fact that a flying saucer would be coming for him that night. I was confused by this at first, but then remembered he is able to travel through time. So I concluded that Billy had already lived this night, but because he goes back and forth in time,  he is reliving it.

As Billy Pilgrim wandered through his house waiting for the Tralfamadorians to arrive, the phone rang. Why is somebody calling in the middle of the night? It was a drunk man. It is said in the book that "Billy could almost smell his breath - mustard gas and roses." Although I have no idea what this would smell like, this olfactory imagery was strangely familiar. After giving it much thought, I realized where I had heard this before. On chapter one, the narrator who seeks to write a book, admits getting drunk late at night and calling his ex-girlfriends. It seems like the narrator is the one calling Billy. He could've dialed the wrong number, or maybe Billy's wife was once his girlfriend. This is the second time that Billy's and the narrator's lives meet.

After hanging up on the drunk person, Pilgrim decides to watch a movie. He comes unstuck in time and watches the movie from the end to the beginning, completely distorting the plot. It's a war movie about the damage caused by Germans. However, by watching it this way, the story ends up being about how Germans saved everybody. This contradicts the Tralfamadorians' and Billy's idea that time is linear. It proves that cause and effect plays a huge role in time and that the order of events may completely change a story's meaning.

Billy travels to the past and to the future. There is a moment were he goes back to when he was a prisoner of war. He was taken to a prison and given a jacket of a dead civilian. This reminded me of a book called I Have Live a Thousand Years. This is a story about a Jewish girl in a concentration camp during World War II. One day, they are all given new clothes and she is ecstatic... that is, until she realizes the coat she was given belonged to murdered Jewish girl. This makes her loathe this piece of clothing forever, I would have too. However, in Slaughterhouse-Five, it seems like no soldier found it uncomfortable to be wearing coats that once belonged to a fellow soldier.

Once Billy met the Tralfamadorians, my theory was proven correct. On my last blog, I assumed Billy Pilgrim believed life has been planned out until the very end. Once Billy is on the flying saucer, a Tralfamadorian says "I see time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself with warnings or explanations. It simply is." 

This demonstrates that Tralfamadorians believe everything happens because it is meant to be. I in no way agree with this because I find it quite discouraging. According to them, beings have no control over what happens and there is no such thing as free will. They are convinced that choices don't exist because every life has already been planned out from birth to death.

"Among the Things Billy Pilgrim Could Not Change were the Past, the Present, and the Future"

  On Chapter Three of Slaughterhouse-Five, I realized that the novel is narrated in first person. While reading Chapter Two, I thought there was a third person narrator and Billy Pilgrim would be the main focus of the entire story. However, a sentence read "I was there.", demonstrating the narrator is mysterious character yet to be discovered.

   Billy Pilgrim continues to simply say "so it goes" after every death. At first, this just annoyed me. I believed that Pilgrim was trying to conceal his pain and pretend he wasn't at all bothered by the deaths he witnessed. He seemed apathetic to everything, including his childhood home now being an empty space and the bombing of North Vietnam. However, I soon began to suspect there was a bigger reason behind this. It is soon explained in the novel, that Billy Pilgrim has a prayer on his office wall which says "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." I took this as an explanation for his apathy and saw it as something good. He wasn't trying to pretend he didn't care, he was simply forcing himself not to care because there was nothing he could do about it. I liked this philosophy a lot. If there's nothing to do, one should just accept it and move on, instead of hovering on the situation and never letting go. On the other hand, if there is something to do about it, one should have the strength to act and solve it. I found it inspirational and began to actually admire Billy Pilgrim. However, what followed in the story made me take back my admiration: Pilgrim believes there is nothing to do about the past, the present or the future. Because he sees time as something circular, and believes that everything is happening at the same time, he thinks there is no way to make a change. Therefore, his life is meaningless and routine-like, with (in his opinion) no decisions being made and everything being planned out until the very end.

   We are always told that we have the power to make life what we want it to be. This is actually motivational, allowing people to make the best of their lives and change their minds about things many times. However, with this theory, Billy will not even try to change things because - as weird as it may sound - that is already the future's past, so it shouldn't be changed. Since everything is happening at the same time, there is no such thing as past, present, and future. This allows Pilgrim to believe that there is nothing to do about neither of these, and everything should stay the way he already saw it in the future.

"All Moments, Past, Present, and Future, Always Have Existed."

In chapter two from "Slaughterhouse-Five", the reader gets to know Billy Pilgrim. He was born in Ilium, New York, and then studied optometry for a while. However, he was soon called for military service in Germany, forced to halt his studies. After being in the army, he married, had two kids, and became a successful optometrist. During his entire life, Billy was able to travel through time, from before he was born until the moment he died.

The prevailing theme in this novel is time. The narrator seems to perceive it as something made-up by humans, implies that there is no way to measure it, and even defies it. Billy claims to have been abducted by aliens from a planet called Tralfamadore, but nobody noticed because Tralfamadorian years are equal to a microsecond on earth. This reminded me of "The Chronicles of Narnia", where the little girl visits Narnia for the first time, but her siblings won't believe her because days in this unknown land are equal to a few seconds in their world.

Tralfamadorians taught Billy a very important lesson, which he wishes to disperse through the rest of society. They are able to go to the moment in time they desire, demonstrating that "it is an illusion we have on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever." It is the other way around: every moment has always been there and will forever be there.

This will seem geeky, but I've always been interested in time travel. I constantly analyze it and have thought about the Tralfamadorian theory, where everything is happening at the same time. If this were the case, the French Revolution, the Big Bang, World War I and II, etc. would al be taking place at the exact same time, but we woud just be aware of one event happening at that instant. Although very unlikely, this could be the case, we could all be living in many places at once. It is a topic very hard to understand, and probably impossible to grasp. However, by addressing it, Vonnegut makes a point and gives the reader something to think about.

"The Ones Who Hated War the Most, Were the Ones who Really Fought."

The first chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, is more like a preface than a part of the story itself. The narrator was a soldier in World War II, and wants to write a story about his experience in the Bombing of Dresden. However, he is unsure of what to include in his novel. In the end, he is able to write a "short and jumbled and jangled" novel, because according to him, "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre."

I find it best to begin by explaining a bit about what the Bombing of Dresden was, for those who like me, knew little about the topic. In the 1940's the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Airforce developed firestorms. They would drop bombs filled with chemicals like magnesium, petroleum jelly and phosphorus, over big areas. The area would catch fire and temperatures would rise quickly, sucking people into the fire.

On February 13th, 1945, seven hundred seventy-three Royal Air Force planes bombed Dresden, which had not been attacked during the war and was not very well defended. The United States Army Airforce sent five hundred twenty-seven more bombers during the next two days to support the United Kingdom. It was impossible to determine how many people were killed in this bombing. Some researchers say there were 35,000 victims, but many Germans say the number was well over 100,000.

It is ironic to be writing this on September 11, since there is so much in common between the Dresden Bombing and 9/11. Both of these attacks' target were civilians, since there were no military bases in neither of them. They were acts of warning towards the country being attacked: Allies wanted to show the Axis countries how powerful they were, and the Al Qaeda wanted to demonstrate that the US wasn't as indestructible as everybody thought. Although every year, there are people crying and urging others to commemorate victims of these occurrences, only those who were there and experienced all the chaos are aware of what it truly was. Yes, there were people watching the twin towers fall on TV the entire time or looking out for the lost plane, and there were others trying to contact anybody they knew who might have been harmed and keeping up with any news related to the events... but they will never know what everything was like: What the heat felt like, what went through people's minds at that instant, the sight of people dying around them, feeling useless as there is nothing they could do to save them, etc.

The fact that a witness of the Dresden Bombing wants to release a novel about what everything was like, is simply amazing. As the narrator demonstrates, it is very hard to remember everything that took place, and even harder to put it all in a book. The narrator explains that after a massacre, everyone is supposed to be dead and everything is supposed to be very quiet, except for the birds. After the Dresden Bombing, everybody was quiet. Most of the people died, but those who survived didn't say much about it. However, by publishing a novel on what everything was like, the writer is acting like a bird. He is daring to speak up in the middle of a never ending silence, having the courage to demonstrate that there was still life and to exhibit what this terrible event was like.