The reason why I
enjoy the Tralfamadorians so much is that they provide Vonnegut with the opportunity
to let his messages across of his thoughts about the world. The space view is
really a bird’s eye view on humanity, and the Tralfamadorians are Vonnegut’s
vehicle to let readers know what his thoughts are on life. Concepts are easily
introduced through the Tralfamadorians, such as the absence of free will.
While on
Tralfamadore, Billy learns that the people of Earth are the only beings in the universe
that believe in such a thing as free will. In addition to the view of the
characters, the narrator seems to orchestrate the novel in a way to indicate
that the course of events are not directed by free will anyways. We, as
readers, get the sense that the Tralfamadorians are all-knowing when they say
things like “That is a very Earthling question
to ask, Mr. Pilgrim.” Vonnegut depicts them as superior in knowledge, and so
for the purposes of the novel at least, we can take the word of the Tralfamadorians
that the idea that there is no such thing as free will is established. In fact,
the very event of Billy traveling to Tralfamadore is evidence to the dynamic of
the absence of free will in Slaughterhouse-five.
Tying into the concept of non-linear time, Billy knows that he will be captured
by the aliens and taken to another planet…yet he does nothing about it, perceiving
the future as a given. Also his time spent in the zoo is symbolic in showing
that he can do nothing about his predicament (predicament might not even be the
right term because Billy doesn’t seem all too bothered by it). His controlled
setting show that he is not the one making the calls for his own life. It is
also interesting how cyclical time and the lack of free will work nicely
together, because characters and readers alike know what is going to happen
ahead of time, and everyone knows how the future is equal to the truth and is
not going to change.
Details not
directly related to the Tralfamadorians are in the novel to further add on to the
idea of no free will. The often mentioned repetition of “so it goes” is one of
them. There are several implications of the phrase, and one such usage is the indication
that life moves on whether you like it or not. It flows to its own will, and doesn’t
pay attention to the will of individuals. Another occurrence of free will being
denied is the mention of the things that Billy cannot change, including “the
past present and the future.” Vonnegut most definitely incorporates these
snippets of repeated ideas in combination with the Tralfamadorian claim to say
there is no free will.
As a last note I
wanted to express my curiosity as to whether or not all of the messages Vonnegut
gets across to readers through the Tralfamadorians are his own thoughts. So in
this case, does Vonnegut himself believe that free will doesn’t exist? And if
so, is there some greater importance he intends to send with that claim as a
theme in the novel?
In a way, the novel's seemingly dim view on free will can be seen as a result of the peculiar position the historical memoir creates for the one who's doing the remembering: looking back, nothing about the past can be changed. The moments are all structured that way. The survivor might feel guilt and deep unease about his survival, and the fact that it's so arbitrary and not at all a result of his own decisive actions. With all this in mind, the image of the individual as caught up in enormous forces makes a lot more sense than the fiction that the heroic individual can act and change the course of history. All he can do is try to represent what he saw ("I was there," as Billy says.)
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