Free Will In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
Slaughterhouse Five is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut who expresses his thoughts on antiwar, social issues, and life through the character Billy Pilgrim and others. Vonnegut uses many examples of social commentary to show the audience the depth of society from an opposing standpoint. In the novel Slaughterhouse five, Vonnegut uses free will to contradict the thought of humans being able to change the future or for it to be predestined. Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. It is also the ability to act at one's own discretion. Vonnegut talks about many different examples of free will throughout the novel. In chapter 2, Vonnegut's character Billy is traveling from past to present discussing events that has had
…show more content…
The text states, "Had a meek faith in a loving Jesus which most soldiers found putrid"(38). The author states that Billy has a submissive, not very confident belief in Jesus Christ. This creates a conflict because he can't teach to others if he doesn't have a strong belief in it himself. Throughout the novel the author continues to use free will as Billy travels through time. There is no destination or order. Billy's relationship with the Tralfamadorians is a major example of free will. "The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist" (34). The Tralfamadores gives the assumption that you shouldn’t cry or mourn when someone dies because it was destined to happen. In reality humans have emotions which is different from the Tralfamadorians. Humans see the world as if every action that one makes has a consequence. Where the Tralfamadores think that one can create their own
The text states, "Had a meek faith in a loving Jesus which most soldiers found putrid"(38). The author states that Billy has a submissive, not very confident belief in Jesus Christ. This creates a conflict because he can't teach to others if he doesn't have a strong belief in it himself. Throughout the novel the author continues to use free will as Billy travels through time. There is no destination or order. Billy's relationship with the Tralfamadorians is a major example of free will. "The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist" (34). The Tralfamadores gives the assumption that you shouldn’t cry or mourn when someone dies because it was destined to happen. In reality humans have emotions which is different from the Tralfamadorians. Humans see the world as if every action that one makes has a consequence. Where the Tralfamadores think that one can create their own