The impact of war is negatively portrayed in Kurt VonnegutÆs Slaughter-House Five. However, the author provides the ôalienö perspective of the science fiction characters of the Tralfamadorians in the novel, who have a perception of time that is not divided into past, present, and future. Instead, the Tralfamadorians view time all at once in a manner that undermines the concept of free will. To the Tralfamadorians, humans are like insects trapped in a fixed state because time is fixed. Yet the quietism or passivity of the Tralfamadorians is rejected as an ethical stance by Vonnegut. For this reason, the Tralfamadorians do not take away but rather reinforce the anti-war sentiments of the novel.
The Tralfamadorians do not believe in free will, the idea that individuals make their own choices. Because of their view of time, they ascribe to an ethical position that can only be described as passive or quiet. However, Vonnegut rejects this philosophical and ethical perspective. We are told he admired LotÆs wife because she does look back (Vonnegut 21-22). We see that Billy is reminded by the barbershop quartet that he has ôa great big secret somewhere insideö (Vonnegut 126). This ôsecretö equates to BillyÆs repressed memories of the traumas of combat during the bombing of Dresden. Unlike the quietism of the Tralfamadorians, Billy knows that he must face his memories in order to ensure that the horrors of war are not forgotten so that, hopefully, they will not recur. As Cacicedo (360) asserts, ôIn a literal contradiction of the Tralfamadorian ethos, he pointedly looks at those æunpleasantÆ moments, not because he revels in them but because they so powerfully determine who he is and what he does.ö
We see in the novel that Billy is often willing to engage in the commercial enterprises of peacetime rather than reflect on any of his traumatic memories of warfare. He owns various comm
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