Slaughterhousefive by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five , by Kurt Vonnegut , published in 1969 , like all classics of literature , deals with more than one theme , as well as many motifs . It can be taken as a straightforward science fiction work or as esoteric philosophy . It takes on the challenge of dealing with the subject of free will as a theme throughout the novel . Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians , alien life forms , to make his point that there is no such thing as free will . He tells the reader that it is only on the planet Earth , where the dominant

life forms think of time as being linear , that the notion of free will exists . It is Vonnegut 's contention that free will does not exist and he goes about proving this thesis in different ways . I agree that Vonnegut makes some compelling points but he uses specious arguments and I do not accept that ultimately he proves his contention

The tralfamadorians may only exist within the mind of Billy Pilgrim the novel 's protagonist , though they are relevant in that they carry a message which Vonnegut wants delivered to his readers . Their theory of a fourth dimension , in which all of time exists simultaneously , with the past , present and future all happening at the same moment , is a rhetorical device used effectively by Vonnegut , allowing Pilgrim to rationalize all of the brutalities of war . Pilgrim has to have a way to come to terms with his trauma and the reader is left to wonder if the Tralfamadorians actually exist anywhere but in the mind of Pilgrim , who is demonstrably unstable . If they do not exist then their theory of predestination goes out the window , leaving the reader to accept free will as the only viable alternative

There is an incident in which a young Billy Pilgrim 's father puts him in the deep end of the swimming pool . His father means to teach young Billy to swim but the plan backfires when Billy is willing to sit on the bottom of the pool and drown . This incident may seem like proof of a lack of free will by virtue of the fact his father thwarts his will , yet there are numerous reasons why a parent would not allow his child to drown . The fact that Billy is rescued is not proof of predestination

The Tralfamadorians believe that all moments of time have already happened so they are written in stone and cannot be changed , therefore there is no point in trying to have a free will , for each person 's history has already been written . Pilgrim comes to believe that the time theory of these aliens is correct . He sees the future because it has happened , and will continue to happen , over and over in an endless loop of time . Yet the argument to be made in defense of free will is that Pilgrim is a mental patient . The reader cannot trust that the alien life forms that have instructed him in this rather disjointed theory of...