Kilgore Trout Analysis

Billy’s inability to form meaningful relationships is shown throughout most the novel until he met Kilgore Trout. Kilgore Trout was a science fiction author whose stories resembled Billy’s experiences or hallucinations on Tralfamadore. In Trout’s stories, he imagines the world in a new and unique fashion, one that Billy can relate to and one that Billy found comforting. Trout was the only person who understood Billy’s hallucinations and his so called time travels and as a result, he was the only person who connected with Billy. This was shown during Billy’s eighteenth wedding anniversary party. In the middle of the ceremony, Billy suddenly time traveled and started to receive hallucinations of the traumas he experienced in war. His face started
In addition to novels about time travel, Trout also wrote novels about the unknowns, things such as the fourth dimension. In one of his novels named Maniacs in the Fourth Dimensions, Trout states, “there really were vampires and werewolves… but they were in the fourth dimension” (Vonnegut 104). In Castro’s essay The Narrative Function of Kilgore Trout, he states that, “the science fiction novels that Trout wrote offers Billy new lies of the universe so that he can go on living” (Castro 117). Trout’s novels offers another way for Billy to see the world, something that is different from society or of logic. It also provided a way for Billy to reinvent himself in society. In conclusion, Billy’s constant hallucinations and time travels cause by his schizophrenia continues to alienate him from society inhibiting him from forming relationships. Kilgore Trout was the only person who understood Billy’s hallucinations and his perception of life. Trout’s novels provided meaning for Billy’s life and allowed him to reinvent himself. As a result, Billy finds comfort with Trout and forms a close relationship with