"One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged form being characters"

I've now finished the book (Slaughterhouse-Five). Strange one, I must admit. But in only two-hundred fifteen pages, I was able to see the most important occurrences in Billy Pilgrim's life. From when he was in his mother's womb, to when he was killed, to when he meet the Tralfamadorians, and to his experiences at war. It is much more than one can learn about a character in even three-hundred pages.

Vonnegut's narrative techniques are amazing in this novel. The end doesn't seem like the end at all. I dont meant it's one of those endings where the reader is left shocked at the sudden, unexpected ending. It's nothing like that actually. But this is not bad in any way. When I finished reading, I felt like this book could just keep on and on forever, with Billy time-traveling from one year to the other. This feeling simply strengthened Billy Pilgrim's and the Tralfamadorians' belief that time is circular. 

Kurt Vonnegut is brilliantly adapting a belief into a literary technique. He somehow makes the narrating of the book circular itself. With his narrative techniques, any part of the book could be the beginning or the ending. The story doesn't follow a series of events in a chronological order. It goes back and forth in time, supporting the idea that everything happens at the same time instead of chronologically. The order of events coud be altered and everything would remain clear and coherent. 

For some reason, Vonnegut decided to end Billy's story with Pilgrim being at the Tralfamadorian zoo with Montana Wildhack and their baby. It's strange how out of all the events in Billy's life, he decided to use this one as the final one. I believe he chose this one because it's the point in Billy's life where he's finally happy and fits in. Odd, isn't it? How the place where Billy fits in best, is a planet with beings completely different from him. But he's had a hard life. In war, nobody liked him very much because of how weak and weird he was. After the war ended he got married, but it was to a woman who he didn't even like. However, he seems completely happy with Montana and their newborn. There seems to be a sense of belonging that is not present in any other part of the novel. True, it might all be a made up story in Billy's head, but it's where he's happiest.

"Are Tralfamadorians a Reflection of Humans?"

I recently read a blog post called "Ignoring the Dreadful"by Viviana Correa. She wonders about the resemblance between Tralfamadorians and humans, and criticizes the human race. "There's nothing bad about humans", many believe. Others think "Well, we do damage our surroundings, but whatever. What is there to do?" Viviana believes the opposite.

"I believe Vonnegut is trying to show us how irrational we are, when we think we humans know everything, and are more important than anybody else. Therefore, we try to change things, stop them, and create them without worrying about the consequences these actions might bring to the entire planet."This is said on Viviana's blog. I completely agree with her. Tralfamadorians might be a way to demonstrate humans' barbarity and foolishness. We believe we're so smart and the world is made for our amusement and benefit. So we decide to proper and leave everything behind: our trash, those species we endanger, damaged ecosystems, etc.

We pollute our Earth every day. But it's for us, the greatest species of our Earth, why does it matter? Right? No. Who are we to pollute our earth like this? Yeah, we are smart. But does this give us the right to ruin our earth? After all, we are not the only ones living on this world. There are mammals, amphibians, carnivores, omnivores, trees, flowers, and many other types of living things that are being killed because of us and our constant need for money.

What if we were the animals? Then it would seem unfair, wouldn’t it? But since we are people it doesn’t matter much, does it? Viviana describes how Billy was kept naked in a zoo for Tralfamadorians to behold all the time. This seems ridiculous and irrespecutful to many readers. But don't we do the same? We just frown upon it because in this case, it's a human who's in the cage.

Viviana also mentions the Tralfamadorians' point of view ("...they tell Billy Earthlings should start ignoring awful times and concentrating on good ones.") and admits that it is hard for humans to ignore the bad things. I completely agree with her, though I didn't realize so as I read. Many of us might hav a million things to smile about and small problem. Do you think this would make us happy or sad? It would be expected for us to feel happy in these cases. However, most of us focus on the problem and ignore all other things we could be smiling about. Just like Viviana and the Tralfamadorians say, this should halt. We should ignore the bad things. Smile because of all those good things, instead of looking bad at all those nagging problems.