Theme Of Senseless Violence In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

In the novel Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim experiences time differently from any other person. Instead of experiencing time in a linear fashion, Billy jumps randomly throughout all of the events in his life. It is this random experience of time that allows Vonnegut to enforce the themes of senseless violence and the illusion of choice. Billy first comes unstuck in time during his military service in World War II. It is after this point when he begins to experience time randomly. When Billy arrives home from the war, he believes he is taken by aliens called the Tralfamadorians. They teach him that all time exists at once and there is no such thing as death. Billy takes this to heart and adopts their expression “so it
goes”. He uses the saying any time he witness or even thinks about death. Billy uses what he learned to cope with the many deaths he witnesses throughout his life. Because he thinks he is unstuck in time and all time exists simultaneously, he believes that death does not really exist. Vonnegut uses Billy’s seemingly uncaring attitude towards death to help depict how much death occurs. The illusion of choice is another major theme of the novel. Billy learns the fate of the universe from the Tralfamadorians and that there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The same concept applies to his life as well. Billy has seen his death and knows it is his only fate. To him time may occur randomly, but the same events will always occur. Vonnegut employs Billy’s beliefs to push both the ideas of the inevitability of death and the inability to change events, especially in war. The war in which Billy is a part of not only damages his life, but the lives of many others as well. Kurt Vonnegut uses Billy’s experiences and his unique perception of time to show the destruction caused by war and the inevitability of death.