Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five Analysis

“‘Schlachthof-fünf’ Schlachthof meant slaughterhouse. Fünf was good old five”(Vonnegut 153). In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the main character throughout the book is “unstuck in time”. The author tells readers the character’s life out order, basically readers go wherever the character goes in time. To write this book as an interesting and unique kind of war book without glamorizing the war, based on his experiences Vonnegut chose to write about the effects of war on soldiers but mostly himself with a fictional character named Billy
Pilgrim. Although the book never goes into depth whether Billy is truly sane or insane because it is slightly told through his perception and does not tell his diagnosis. Could conclude Billy’s not
completely
PTSD causes a tremendous amount of mental distresses. In article by the ADAA about the symptoms of PTSD it says soldiers goes through, “Reexperiencing the trauma through intrusive distressing

recollections of the event, flashbacks, and nightmares.” Therefore they are constantly going back in time or “unstuck in time” like quoted from the novel. Numerous soldiers loses jobs constantly or struggles to keep jobs and moreover the same with relationships and connections with other people. In the same ADAA article it states “Emotional numbness and avoidance places, people, reminders of the trauma….Research has recently shown that PTSD among military personnel may be physical brain injury.” They usually hit their heads or get wounded.
What characteristics does Billy Pilgrim carry that can connect back to PTSD? Well, there is always a mention of being unstuck in time. “Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips are necessarily fun”(Vonnegut 23). He does not have any