Trauma is a tricky thing. It hurts people deeply, then makes them think they've forgotten it or gotten over it. It nestles deep within a person's soul, perched between fragile emotions and memories, contaminating its environment until its effects manifest in the person it has taken over; these effects often have the ability to alter a person's mind in order to create an escape to a more stress-free reality. For Billy Pilgrim of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, the manifestation of his trauma lies in his belief that he has been abducted by Tralfamadorian aliens, in particular - and that he has traveled back in time through all the events of his life. Vonnegut leaves it to the reader to decide whether Billy actually experienced everything he says he experienced. However, careful analysis shows that Billy Pilgrim created this story as a way to cope with the horrors as an American soldier during World War II and the traumas of his early childhood. Even so, it creates an unorthodox view of life within this fantasy, in which every moment is predestined and has already happened. No matter how much Billy Pilgrim certainly would have wanted to be kidnapped by aliens and have more "enlightened" insight into escaping, he just wasn't kidnapped. The real abduction occurred in his mind, when his trauma took over and produced a reality-defying escape. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'? Get the original essay Billy's need to escape the traumas that torment him becomes evident when he begins to merge his war experiences with his memories difficulties of his early childhood. He recalls a childhood memory at the Ilium YMCA, in which his father "was going to throw Billy in the deep end, and Billy was going to swim just fine" (Vonnegut 55). Billy says it felt like "an execution" and later merges this traumatic memory with that of being a prisoner of war; he describes the showers they were forced to take in the camps and the "white tiled wall" similar to the white tiled walls of a YMCA to connect the severe stress he experienced on both occasions (Vonnegut 55, 107 ). On another occasion, Billy describes the fear he felt at age twelve while visiting Carlsbad Caverns on a family trip; he explains how he “prayed to God to get him out of there before the ceiling collapsed” (Vonnegut 113). When the lights went out and they were in total darkness, Billy said he "didn't even know if he was alive or not." This is meant to reflect the existential questions Billy would ask himself in such a lifeless place during the war: "where did he come from and where should he go now?" » (Vonnegut158). The total physical darkness of the caves reflects the grim reality of war, in which prisoners lose hope and feel their lives slipping through their fingers. Billy's childhood trauma and war trauma mix into a relentless pain that consumes Billy. Ultimately, he finds his own way to escape to the twisted and invented reality of "Tralfamadore." Going from violence, hunger, and despair as a prisoner of war to a normal life in the United States was not something Billy The Pilgrim could easily transition into. The horrors were ingrained in his mind and 'escape' to Tralfamadore seemed far more tempting than facing those demons. The similarities are nevertheless evident between the war and life in Tralfamadore. When Billy is captured byGerman soldiers, he was placed for days on a cold, crowded train with other prisoners in which the Germans communicated with them via a fan. This reflects Billy's abduction by the Tralfamadorians, when he is "transported into the airlock" of the saucer, in which there are "two peepholes inside the airlock with yellow eyes pressed against them" (Vonnegut 96) . The impersonal feeling of being observed through a small opening while enclosed is present in both cases. On another occasion, German soldiers "found in him one of the funniest things they had seen in all of World War II" after seeing Billy in a small, ill-fitting overcoat (Vonnegut 115). Again, this reflects how the Tralfamadorians observed Billy and found the human need for explanations strange and almost comical. Billy essentially normalizes the behaviors of the German soldiers by translating them into the behaviors and lifestyles of the Tralfamadorians. It is easier to imagine a small alien with a different accepted reality, treating it as an important subject of study and enlightening it, than to face the truth of the heinous violence and humiliations against it that demeaned and traumatized during the war. By creating this correlation, Billy takes the difficult experiences of war and transforms them into his own reality on Tralfamadore, in order to comfort him from the true horrors of war. Ultimately, what elevates Billy Pilgrim's coping mechanism to Tralfamadore is the Tralfamadorian belief that every moment is predestined and occurred in the past, present, and future. Vonnegut even reflects this belief in his non-linear style to further indicate the connection between events that would normally occur at different times; this non-linear style also acts as a metaphor for how past traumas from war and childhood arise at random times and disrupt Billy's mental health. Billy's traumas jump to a halt when an American soldier asks a German guard, "Why me?" ”, to which you, the German guard, respond “Vy vous?” For someone? (Vonnegut116). This is meant to reflect the question Billy asks when he is first kidnapped: why me? » to which the Tralfamadorians simply respond: “Why you? Why us anyway? Why something? Because the moment simply is” (Vonnegut 97). Billy essentially takes a question associated with a traumatic event, translates it into his own reality on Tralfamadore, and provides a deeper, predestination-inspired meaning for comfort. On another occasion, Billy recalls his time as a prisoner of war during which he and all other captured Americans were forced to shower at the camp. He explains how “there was no faucet they could control” and how “they could only wait for what happened” (Vonnegut 107). The invisible hand that runs the showers is meant to reflect the invisible hand, essentially God, that Billy alludes to, that controls every moment of existence. This reinforces Billy's accepted idea of ​​no free will. This idea allows Billy to fully cope with his trauma by accepting everything that has happened, as he truly trusts the Tralfamadorian belief that all the death and destruction he witnessed was simply meant to happen. produce. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay The truth is that there is no telling how a person will react and do afterward.