Since starting Slaughterhouse Five, one of the things that has most struck me has been Billy Pilgrim's state of mind. On the surface, it would seem as though Billy is a mature, successful adult. He fought and lived through World War II, becomes an optometrist with a booming business in New York, has a wife and two children who also grow up to be respectable members of society. He is the president of the Lion's Club, a group of "prosperous, solid men." Etc.
And yet, under it all, Billy is barely cognizant of his own life. Like the image of Billy Pilgrim skating on a ballroom floor in socks, I imagine this character skating over his life, never submerging himself in the details of his circumstances and acting more as a witness than a participant. While Billy's mind is aloof in the world of time travel, it watches as his body is maneuvered from place to place by other people. This seems most obvious during the war, when Robert Weary literally shoves Billy forward through the snow, or when trains transport him from the German forests to a prisoners camp. Throughout the war, Billy doesn't seem to understand the fragility of his life, wanting the other Americans to leave him behind and letting German soldiers get a second chance at shooting him. It's surprising that this character will even make it out of the war, with all of his companions dying beside him (so it goes), and when he does, it probably won't be any fault of his own. After the war, Billy's actions still seem like consequences of other's actions. For example, his optometry business was started because of his wife's father's urgings.
Billy's obliviousness, lack of responsibility for his life, and constant daydreaming/tuning out of the present remind me of child-like behaviors. Billy is manipulated by the adults, or superiors, of his life, and always seems carefree. He also has this childlike sense of wonder (like when he finds the diamond and partial denture in his jacket). However, I think that most of Billy's disconnected-from-reality behaviors come from his having become unstuck in time. He's carefree because he knows what will happen next in his life and zones out because he's remembering events from the past or future. His ability to time travel seems to have affected his life by stripping away his will to live. It encapsulates the mindset of the innocent yet irrational Billy Pilgrim that we see in World War II, and projects it into other periods of his life.
Billy's such a sad character. I guess I already knew that, but reading this post makes him seem a lot more... not robotic, but dissociative, maybe? He knows too much. He doesn't want to live but isn't suicidal because he knows how he'll die. I can't imagine what it would be like to unnaturally and randomly slide through the fourth dimension, so I really can't blame him for how pathetic and passive he is all the time.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Billy does seems fairly passive and doesn't really do much, as you described. I think it has to do with his ability to time travel as well as possibly the Tralfamadorian explanation of the lack of free will--that free will only exists on Earth. With the lack of a concept of free will, Billy feels like and knows what's going to happen to him and he can't change it, as the Tralfamadorians seem to imply.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Billy's personality was already like this before the war/him becoming unstuck in time, or if travelling through the 4th D really made him this way. There's no way to tell through the presentation of the story since he's an unreliable narrator, but I find his distant/non-responsive attitude against instinct. Instead of being desensitized, I would think that an episode of becoming unstuck in time would shake a person up in many ways.
ReplyDeleteBilly is kind of a frustrating character to read about because he rarely seems to have any kind of independent desires, beyond the desire to stay in one place and die during the war. When he first gets unstuck in time, he never seems to get thrown off by it, or question what's happening. He just goes along with it and accepts it as a fact. I think he must have been that way for his whole life, or he would have reacted more to the batshit crazy stuff happening to him.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting that his knowledge of what will happen makes him carefree. If anything I would have expected it to make him stressed out all the time. If you knew every bad thing that "would" happen to you, wouldn't you do everything in your power to stop it? On the other hand though, maybe he has just come to terms with the fact that it will happen.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that Billy's almost childlike behavior is connected to his time traveling abilities. It seems has though he has no desire to live because he already knows how his life will play out. Putting myself in Billy's shoes, I could see how this could be incredibly frustrating, especially having the power to know all of the bad events that are to come in the future and being unable to change anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the part about Billy being childlike, but I don't know whether or not I would connect it to his time traveling issues. It's hard to tell the way the book is written when Billy first came unstuck, but even before the first time Vonnegut described a time jump, Billy seemed very spacey and apathetic.
ReplyDeleteYou mention an interesting observation, the childlike behavior of Billy. It sort of makes sense that he would be "manipulated by other adults" if his fate had already been shown to him. His extreme carelessness is pretty off-putting at times, and I think Vonnegut is aware of the effect.
ReplyDeleteHis ability to time travel definitely affects his character, and like Claire said, I understand why he might seem like a sad or apathetic character, considering he already knows the story and knows there's absolutely nothing he can do to change the outcome. It's interesting that you see Billy as childlike, and I can see how his time travelling can affect that. Like he sees things differently because he has no need to look forward since he already knows about his entire life. Really interesting post Iuls!
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting about this is the fact that Billy, after seeming so nonchalant about everything, finally picks up something he is passionate about: science fiction. While his time travel arguably makes Billy the most bland main character I've encountered in my reading career, it does make him interested in spreading the word about Tralfamadore and the futility of death. It intrigues him so much that while he is supposed to be in bed at the hospital, Billy secretly sneaks out to speak about chat his experiences have taught him. I found this part interesting, as there was something here that Billy actually cared about. But I agree with your depiction of him in your post, especially your suggestion that it may be that he already knows what will happen to him and because of this goes through life so apathetic.
ReplyDeleteFor all of his apathy, I am surprised how successful Billy has been in his life. He has managed to move his way up from taking classes at night-school to becoming a successful optometrist. Even more impressive to me is how easily he is able to slide into whatever situation is time travel puts him. I think that his apathy is the secret to this, it is a tool that allows him to accept what is happening and not stress out about his rapidly changing world.
ReplyDeleteYour observation that Billy is very childlike and carefree in his nature is interesting. His mellow nature due to the fact that he knows what's going to happen to him comes off as carefree in a sense, but when I think of someone who is childlike and carefree they are usually happy, playful, and enjoying life, which Billy is not.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I agree that Billy's neutrality in every situation makes him a frustrating character to read about. He has already accepted everything that he knows will happen to him, which is strange because if I was in this situation, I know I would probably try to change the way things go. The question of how he acted before he became unstuck in time is an interesting one. Was he more enthusiastic about things before? Did he have more ambition to do things himself, rather than let others put him in a position?
ReplyDeleteThe thing that confused me the most and seemed the most oxymoronic and contradictory thing to me about Billy Pilgram's character is that fact that he can time travel, both forwards and backwards and yet like you said, he seems so starstruck every time he encounters something "new". As a person who knows what happens in the past, present, and future, I feel as though that should dictate a character the exact opposite of the one Vonnegut gives us. However, this ironic character that is Billy Pilgrim is what Vonnegut envisioned on purpose, so there is a reason. I have yet to fully explore his reason though.
ReplyDelete