Vonnegut and the Tralfamadorian Philosophy

Vonnegut and the Tralfamadorian Philosophy

Vonnegut and the Tralfamadorian Philosophy
In summation Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five details the World War II experiences of Billy Pilgrim, an off-the-wall optometrist from Ilium, New York. However, the questions and philosophies inserted within the novel broaden its context far beyond that of the fire bombing at Dresden in 1945. Littered with dark humor and satire, Vonnegut questions the human conception of time and free will, seen through Pilgrim’s interactions with the Tralfamadorians – the alien race who captures him – and his time travels. Pilgrim’s time on Tralfamadore, which is chronologically sporadic throughout the book, offers insight into a fatalist way of thinking, in that all moments are at all times, and therefore all things are inevitable. Vonnegut seesaws between agreement and disagreement with the Tralfamadorian philosophies throughout the novel, creating confusion in the reader. While stating that free will is nonexistent, he also somewhat advises against war despite the fact that it is, in the Tralfamadorian sense, inevitable. Vonnegut’s concordance with his ideas presented through the Tralfamadorians is unclear, and a better understanding of his viewpoint can distinguish between moments of purposeful satire and purposeful profundity.
Although Pilgrim’s time on Tralfamadore is centered in chapters four and five, Pilgrim continually mentions the Tralfamadorians and their philosophical impact on his life. Chronologically, the Tralfamadorian spaceship takes Pilgrim on the night of his daughter’s wedding and, in Earthling time, returns a microsecond later. However, Pilgrim spends what feels to him four Earthling years in the Tralfamadorian zoo. The concept of time as a temporary, variable abstract is threaded throughout the novel, both in Pilgrim’s “unsticking in time” and the Tralfamadorians’ view of the fourth dimension. The first description of Tralfamadorian time in Pilgrim’s second letter to the Ilium News Leader begins...

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