Slaughterhouse-Five

As Billy Pilgrim becomes dislodged in time, he travels between his past, his present, and his future. He becomes aware of everything that will happen to him, just as he is aware of everything that has already happened to him. This insight means that he knows when and how people will die, raising major questions about the existence of free will. Death is inevitable for every person, but very few people know the exact specifics of their death. Billy knows when he and everyone he knows will pass away. He boards a plane with colleagues and his father-in-law knowing that it will crash and everyone will die. He knows that his wife will die while travelling to meet him in the hospital afterward. Billy knows that their deaths are inevitable and he knows that he can do nothing to stop them.

The experience of travelling through time imbues Billy with the Tralfamadorians’ understanding of how the universe functions. Everything happens because it is predestined, and trying to intervene is as impossible as trying to change the past. Billy is traumatized by the war but also learns that he is powerless to stop people from dying. Death is inevitable for everyone, but Billy is forced to confront this idea in a more pointed way than most. This reflects the attitude felt by soldiers in a war, who are caught up in a cycle of violence that is so big and powerful, it is impossible for any one individual to stop.

This theme is most obvious when Billy is forced to confront the inevitability of his own death. Billy knows that he will be killed by Paul Lazzaro on a specific date as vengeance for the death of Roland Weary. Billy was not responsible for Weary’s, death and Lazzaro is a crazed psychopath who has threatened many people. For most of the novel, Lazzaro’s threats seem to be the empty words of a man driven insane by the war. Billy knows better. He records a message detailing how and when he will die, which he then locks in a bank vault. Understanding that his death is inevitable and absurd, Billy uses the opportunity to his advantage. He explains to the listener of the tape that his death is not a sad event. It is an expected and beneficial opportunity to demonstrate his unique understanding of time. Billy turns the inevitability of his death into a chance to demonstrate his ideas to the world. He predicts his own death and uses it as evidence for his time travelling experiences. Billy justifies his own existence by dying, allowing the world to better understand a difficult and seemingly bizarre interpretation of time. All time exists at once, he learns from the Tralfamadorians, so people should not view the moment of death as some inevitable finality. Billy embraces the inevitability of death and turns it into a positive.