Vonnegut Violet Light Essay

1.
2. At one point in the novel, Billy’s time-jumps stabilize for a moment. Vonnegut writes, “This was when Billy first came unstuck in time. His attention began to swing grandly through the full arc of his life, passing into death, which was violet light. There wasn’t anybody else there, or [sic]any thing. There was just violet light- and a hum.” (Vonnegut 43) In this scene, he continues to “swing” through stages, back into life, until “he was in pre-birth, which was red light” (43). These two colors are a split complementary duo on the color wheel; they share a common hue, yet look quite different and carry distinct meanings. This speaks to the duality of birth and death. Vonnegut possibly chose violet light for death because of its strange contrast with the known natural world. Violet light in this context, like death, is foreign and imposed. It is not a typical color used in relation to death, like black or red, which characterizes Vonnegut’s approach to death in this novel. The red light is maternal, but also strange. The usage of symbolism in the colored light speaks to Billy’s emotional structure, and attempts to create a concept of what cannot necessarily be written concisely.
Vonnegut’s use of science fiction highlights the discrepancies in our scope of understanding, and adds postmodernist nuances to his characterizations. Reality in this novel is skewed and jumpy, purely a reflection of Billy’s erratic perception. The science fiction is a device in this novel, not a style. War has so disrupted Billy’s psyche that he hallucinates. These visions of the Tralfamadorians are manifestations of trauma, as well as a rationalization mechanism, which can be applied to the seriousness of the lasting and penetrating effects of war on the remainder of the existence of those who have experienced it. The “fourth dimension”, where all moments in time exist and continue simultaneously, is symbolic of the way trauma permeates every aspect of post war