Tralfamador
The article for my panel presentation on Slaughterhouse 5 talked about how Billy’s most pleasant memories were ones where he had all the necessities of life and wasn’t anxious about anything. Unfortunately, most of the time, Billy would be happy for a bit but then be jolted back to a reality filled with horrors. The author of the article compared Billy’s pleasant memories to him trying to retreat to a womb-like state. The author says that Billy reacts to the horrors of the world around him by withdrawing totally from reality. Billy’s not the ostrich that sticks his head in the sand when in trouble, he crawls back into the egg itself.
The zoo on Tralfamador that Billy is put is supposed to be a successful escape from the horrors of reality. The Tralfamadorian theories free Billy from his anxieties. Billy wants is scared of looking back to the past and seeing Dresden, but he’s also scared of looking forward to old age and death. So, the whole “so it goes” idea of reacting to death is helpful. You can’t be scared of death if it’s meaningless because you can be dead in one moment and be alive in another. The Tralfamadorian theory of time helps Billy’s anxieties because you can’t look back or forward in time if it’s all the same. You can’t be anxious about the future if you already know what happens, and you can’t be anxious about the past because you couldn’t have done anything differently. This whole idea of each moment of time being stuck in amber makes Billy feel better about the horrors of his past and the fear of his future. Tralfamador’s theories about time are what make Tralfamador a safe place for Billy to talk about Dresden. This feeling of safety, being free from anxieties and having all of the necessities of life provided by the Tralfamadorians all while being naked is what makes the zoo womb-like. I think that makes some sort of sense. One difference though is you have to leave the womb at some point and deal with reality, but Billy can’t escape from the zoo. Billy is happy in the zoo, but is this escape to the womb really a good solution? Is it better to try to avoid your problems or face them? What do you guys think?
I think the idea of moments being stuck in amber is a really apt description of Billy's views of the past. Things in amber have a certain beauty to them, which is sometimes how Billy's memories work. He doesn't have emotional attachments to past events (thus "so it goes"), and because of that there is a slight beauty in his way of thinking. It's not that the horrific events he remembers are beautiful, it's that the way each one is encased in an unchanging block of amber is beautiful in its own way.
ReplyDeleteI think another example of Billy retreating back to the womb is what he describes as his “happiest moment ever”. This is when he is being pulled in the wagon through Dresden after it’s bombed. He is lying there, sleeping, under the warm sun, curled up in a container. This definitely sounds like an artificial womb.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we all feel a need to avoid or escape our problems. But Billy gives into this urge to an almost pathological degree. I don't think what Billy is doing is morally tolerable because it removes all meaning or negativity from moments of extreme tragedy. If everyone functioned like Billy, then people could die in horrible circumstances and it wouldn't matter. Nobody would care. I guess that's okay if everyone thinks that way? But I feel like it would lead to violence which causes people to feel extreme pain and terror, yet goes unpunished. At some point, we all have to feel the emotional force of problems caused by others and hopefully try to do some good in the world ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI think because Billie's life is in a constant state of turmoil, his only refuge from chaos are moments of seclusion and isolation. If Billy can forget for a moment that he is stuck in time and just relax, that's when he appears to experience true happiness. Conversations and human interaction remind him of his situation and don't allow him to ever calm down, that's why he's most comfortable in solitude.
ReplyDeleteTralfamadorian ideas definitely seem like an escape for Billy. It almost acts as a type of mute on his life, softening everything and making it nearly impossible to feel any strong emotions. I would agree that the "so it goes" attitude of looking at death definitely minimizes what it actually represents and I can definitely see Billy using it as a way of distancing himself from the reality of the horror of death.
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