Free Will In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

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In the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses the events the protagonist experiences during his life, and science fiction to illustrate the importance of realizing that every moment has been predecided and time is constantly re-occurring. Through this major theme the topics of the absence of free will, the destructiveness of war and inevitability of death are explored.

War has always been a part of history; with great victories and triumphs, come tremendous suffering and loss. In 1945, the firebombing of Dresden led by British/ American air forces killed over 135,000 people and destroyed the city. This firebombing was known as one of the “greatest massacres in european history.” Kurt Vonnegut uses a shadow character named Billy and …show more content…
In slaughterhouse five science fiction is used to explain the illusion of free will. Kurt Vonnegut expresses that every moment in life has been predecided, as conveyed by the tralfamadorians, every “moment simply is...There is no why.” Additionally, that in spite of best efforts no one can change their future because conflict, sorrow and death are inevitable. Tralfamadorians see all moments at one with time occurring and reoccurring, therefore they teach Billy that free will does not exist for one’s fate has already been sealed. Many of the experiences Billy faces during his life transmit this theme. Billy leaves optometry and his bright future because he is forced to be in the army. Also when Billy was a young boy his father decides to teach Billy to swim by throwing him into the pool almost drowning Billy. These are all events in which Billy was forced to experience and was powerless to change their outcome or stop these events from happening. Tralfamadorians once stated “Only on Earth is there any talk of free will,” and Billy’s life exemplifies that free will is a …show more content…
Fate is an event that unavoidably befalls upon a person inevitably predetermined. There is no choice in death or the events that lead up to it, death “simply is.” When Billy was sent to war he found himself deep within army territory with three other highly trained soldiers. Eventually those three soldiers died in war, while the untrained, inexperienced Billy, who had little care for his life survived. This goes to show that “all time is time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is,” and all attempts to change one’s destiny are pointless. Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians to teach this lesson as they explain that someone dead in one moment is alive in another because time in constant. Therefore by realizing that death is inevitable life can better be lived in the present moment. Vonnegut uses the words “so it goes” throughout the novel after something or someone’s demise is mentioned, in which showing the significance of death in everyday life. Humans are compared to “bugs trapped in amber” all futures are predetermined and death is ineescapable, therefore as Vonnegut describes we must “take {life} moment by moment and {we} will find that we all
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