A Mirrored Reflection

Finally. After five long chapters it seems two universes have finally met. Since the beginning I've been speculating on whether or not Billy is indeed Vonnegut but it seems the book has brought my answer a bit earlier than expected. At first I thought Billy's life went in parallel with Vonnegut's. He was Vonnegut's representation of himself in another soldier than went through the same torments he himself had seen in the war. My prediction was erroneous as I came to see in the second part of Chapter 5. When Billy visits the latrines a soldier comments on the gruesome dump he's taking. "There they go, there they go.” These are the only words we hear from a character Vonnegut refers to as himself. It’s a fairly short encounter but a huge turning point in how I now view the book. It’s clear now that Billy is a separate character. He may still be a reflection of Vonnegut’s own madness but we now know, Billy is in fact Billy Pilgrim.

Something else really caught my attention. They quote Howard W. Campbell, an American now working for the Nazi propaganda. His work was sent out to Nazi POW camps to somehow make the officers understand the American’s psychology and to somehow explain why they acted the way they did. In his quotes, Campbell makes great critique of American society, he says, “They mock themselves and glorify their betters”. It talks about higher powers abusing the inferior, pure capitalism. Never before had I heard of an American traitor working for the Nazi regime. He is, in fact, a fictional character that Vonnegut writes about in a previous novel called Mother Night and really only makes short mention in Slaughter House – Five. Campbell is accused after the war but commits suicide before he is ever convicted. So it goes.

Meaningful Art

 The madness in Billy Pilgrim’s life is put under the spotlight. We are now being exposed to an intricate, complex Billy that fears his past. He ignores his mom’s company and lives his life immersed in science fiction books, staying day and night in a veteran’s hospital. This is the year 1948. But this isn’t the present, it isn’t the past, and it definitely isn’t the future. It’s the whole spectrum of his life; we don’t see any chronological order for this doesn’t exist. Moments never come one after the other and what we extract is the big picture. All these ideas really captured my attention.

Billy prepares for his abduction; he already knows they’re coming so he patiently waits. Inside the flying saucer he wants to experience their literature and soon finds himself deciphering something resembling a telegram. This is Tralfamadorian literature. These aliens don’t read consecutive words. Their language consists on forming an image with symbols and just capturing a big picture. It gave the text more depth than any earthling novel could ever create. I connected this immediately with the idea that sometimes images are far more profound than words. “We Tralfamadorians read them all at once, not one after the other. There isn’t any particular relationship between all the messages except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprisingly deep.” The idea of joining together fragments of unrelated material and creating an idea just blew me away. It’s like when we looked at the still painting a few weeks ago. We see a skull, some incense, a sword and other unrelated objects but quickly draw a conclusion. We find meaning behind everyday things you wouldn’t actually look into. Their novels resembled our photographs. Resembled beauty in a perpetual life. 

A Backwards World

There is no was, no will. “It simply is”. It is we, the earthlings that think of free will as something real. We don’t see our lives being shaped by predestination. We believe our actions can shape the future because we see time only in its linear form. Time is relative. It’s circular. Never before had I looked at life in such a way. Never had I even heard of someone talk about it like this. The idea had not been conceived. It takes a book like this to really change your understanding of life, or at least make the attempt of doing so. Quickly Slaughter House Five is turning into one of my favorite books because of its powerful and controversial anecdotes. Just a couple weeks ago a school in Missouri banned this book because of its controversial teachings.  They argued it went “against the bible”. That small fact just makes this book even better, it’s suppose to open people’s mind, to make you think outside if the box. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Up to this point in the book I think I’ve found my favorite part. It’s a strong anti war message brought to us in a very bizarre way. “The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.” This is just an excerpt but it shows us how all destruction is created by us. We purposely search for the deadliest minerals, combine them to form even worst compounds, and then drop them on the innocent just to punish the few guilty ones. That basically is war. We never consider the other option. Not doing any of this. It’s hard to find the why, because there is no why. For now lets leave it at that because this is what it is.

Living In the Moment

           After finishing Chapter 2 I couldn't hold back on the reading, Vonnegut's style makes the narrative that much better and I could only hope the next chapter would do the same. It met all my expectations. 

We begin the chapter by seeing how Billy and Weary encounter a melancholic German patrol and are soon put in captivity. They meet up with more American prisoners and began their journey to a POW camp deep behind German lines. 

I could see how Vonnegut has a very peculiar style in his writing. Through out the story he introduces secondary characters such as the blonde german kid,Wild Bob, the Hobo and others to make the readers identify not only with Billy but with many other characters. He outlines their lives in a very basic way, enough for us to make a personal connection with each and every one of them. These only last a few lines, they then disappear in our memory to be long forgotten. Vonnegut also emphasizes time travel much more taking us a few times to the late 60's around the time Billy first met  the aliens. 

Something that caught my attention was when they mentioned Billy can't change the past, present or future. Most of the time when they talk about time travel they make reference to a butterfly effect where anything you change will create unimaginable repercussions in the future. The character's are then faced with the decision of changing their  lives to meet their dreams without causing any horrible changes but always end up wrecking the future (The Butterfly Effect, Hot Tub Time Machine, Back To the Future). This story differs from them all for we don't see any attempts what so ever of Billy trying to change his life, he just lives in the moment through a predetermined destiny. I still have to see if later on he does make any attempts to do so, but is it even possible? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The Circle of Life

        In the second chapter Vonnegut begins the story introducing us to Billy. He takes us through his life fairly quickly as he just wants to give us the big picture to further present how this character dosen't perceive time as we do. He is able to go to any moment of his life, even his death and birth. At one point in his life, his daughter's wedding, he was abducted by the Tralfamadores and taken for exhibition to their faraway planet. There he gathers a huge amount of knowledge regarding time, how nothing is linear and how events are plainly laid on a table, not one after the other as we see them. Then Billy goes to the point in his life were he first experienced this phenomenon, even before meeting the "aliens". This reminded me a lot of "Inception". It looked like Billy was experiencing a dream on another dream, the only difference was he could travel to any moment in his life.

         What really captivated my attention was how Vonnegut exposed his view on life and the afterlife. Billy talked about how the Tralfamadores had 4D sight, they could look at any point in there life and saw death only as a bad part of a person's life. They didn't see it as the end, it was only a picture in whole photo album. This is something Vonnegut made very clear all throughout stating, "So it goes" after a death was discussed (There were a lot of deaths in this chapter) taking a portion of the tragedy away. I could really relate to this as I too see death as only the continuation of life, not the end as many others see it. Its really all part of the circle, the circle of life. 

Leaving the Past Behind

         Reading Slaughter House 5 really showed me the effect war creates on people. Not only on those involved but also on the others who, alone, wait in the dark for those loved ones to come. So many fathers' they'll never see again, so many kids left alone, and so many widows that will slowly began to forget their husband's faces.

        Vonnegut talked about how when he came back from the war it was so hard to find enough words about the Dresden bombings. With time, as the memory faded in the peoples' mind, he started putting the pieces back together but suddenly no one knew what had happened in Dresden. It was now a long forgotten memory that only he could seem to hold on to. War is idealized in the movies. When it comes everyone despises it, and when it leaves everyone forgets it. No one wants to look back, they are all leaving the past behind.  I felt it somewhat connected to how in "1984" people are brainwashed to the point of not differentiating the enemy. Yesterday we fought the communist, today the terrorist, who will we fight tomorrow?  

Winston Smith In Dante's Inferno

In the book 1984 they introduce us to Winston Smith.  A lonely man working for a party he secretly hates. Being constantly monitored and coping with the fear of being vanished he is unable to show his true feelings. His fear slowly disappears when he meets Julia, a rebellious party member, and begin their secret affair. This first act of disobedience then transforms itself into the search for the underground resistance he has heard so much of. With the hope of finding the leader of said resistance he approaches a colleague he suspects to be on his side. This then leads him to discover a dark secret and end the book on a fairly tragic note. With all this in mind, where should Winston go in the Inferno?

All throughout Dante’s comedy we see how the enemies of the Roman Empire are severely punished. If said party was Oceania he would travel all the way to the 9^th circle, Antenora; where traitors to the homeland duel. Winston could also travel to the 2^nd circle, the home of the lustful. He mentioned his wife was a dead fish, but now with Julia sex was a thrill. Those two circles seem the most appropriate to fulfill his punishment.

After making a quick reflection on 1984 its clear to me there is no poetic justice. Winston, who we could consider the “good guy” is not rewarded at the end. If Inferno were to serve poetic justice we would then have to see Big Brother and other party members lying around the Inferno.  Big Brother would lay with the tyrants next to Alexander who inflicted so much death and sorrow. Winston and Julia would move to heaven. There, poetic justice would be served and the Inferno would become a utopia. A place where sinners pay for their crimes eternally and no innocent souls live amongst the damned. Then again the world would be in peace. It would be perfect.

The Perfect Life By: John Koethe

In Koethe's poem, The Perfect Life, we see the life of an everyday man described in the words of a soul in denial. Looking towards the near horizon, Koethe talks about how the happy moments in life come only once and as time passes by the feelings of contempt soon turn into old memories when everything you took for granted "bears a name to be forgotten soon...". He talks about perfection as something that is lost in time. The obstacles you used to climb with such easiness soon turn into the high walls closing your dreams forever. There once was a time when you never looked back, but now gazing far off into the distance is not enough. You want to recall those moments you thought were filled with perfection but now you see your life was never perfect. This is the idea he portrays in the poem.

I think life is only as perfect as you want it to be. The pursuit of happiness and perfection is the engine that pushes people through life. Is it money what they're looking for? Is it love? Everyone has different opinions but I want to talk about what I consider perfection. Live in the moment and make every minute count, never look back and never have any regrets because life is only one and its up to you to live it the best way possible. As Koethe said, moments won't last forever as soon they will be lost in time.

Every day we face problems and maybe we don't always look forward to the next day because life is a challenge, life is not perfect. It will never be but we still have to stride forward without ever hesitating. Perfection will always come as far as we want it to and someday, not to long from today, you'll recall those moments you enjoyed so much as that single tear slides down your cheek. That joyous tear that represents you accomplished everything you ever wanted. Your life was perfect.