Slaughterhouse Five: War Transforms the Mind

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Although the war was what caused him to go somewhat crazy and create his own planet in his head, he learned a great lesson from them. He learned to embrace the thinking of Tralfamadore because it absolved him from even trying to change the way things are. The greatest thing he learned was: “The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist” (Vonnegut 26).

This novel shows that free will is just an illusion to the prisoners of war and that no matter what they do, their fate has already been decided. POWs could have been the best well dressed soldier, or strongest and most determined soldier, but that had zero effect on their fate. That soldier would have the same fate or even worse fate as someone like Billy Pilgrim who was a scrawny soldier with no desire ...

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