Slaughterhouse V and Humanity

Just recently I have had the chance to read the Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter House V. The story is a sci-fi story about a young war veteran named Billy becoming unstuck from time and as he relives certain moments in his life. Billy is unstuck thanks to the help of an alien race known as the Tralfamadorians. I will admit that at times in the story it was hard to follow but there were moments of interest in the story. I found however the questioning of humanities actions particularly interesting.

Billy particularly uses his new time-traveling to do things such as escape from events that he considered to particularly distressing, whether it be a war scenario such as escaping a bombing raid when he was in a P.O.W. camp to go to a peaceful day with his family. It is particular interesting in seeing these powers be used as it makes the plot nonlinear. The big detail however is that he can't change the events, as they happened already. For example, since the Tralfamadorians have these powers as well, they see the end of universe over and over and not only do they know how it ends but they also try to prevent it, but it is unavoidable they figure out. This does not mean however that the feelings he has from these events can change his mood, it's just the results will be the same. This make Billy more and more resigned to fate but stills question on whether or not if free will can still change these events.

In fact, one quote mentioned by the Tralfamadorians is that "Only on Earth is there talk of free will." This is particularly interesting as it implies that free will is hard to find, or even a concept. Billy however ponders if this means though that war can be prevented. To the Tralfamadorians though, they feel that war is unavoidable, as well as fate. They can’t ignore it because they just do it. It’s interesting as it seems Vonnegut is commenting on the concept of fate and free will together. He seems to suggest that war like most other things is unavoidable but if we have free will, can we not do anything to avoid this? It’s interesting because Vonnegut seems to leave this question open ended and leaves little to go on. When one reads this story, I think they will find that this raises several new questions to people’s philosophies.