Throughout Slaughterhouse-Five, both the narrator and Billy Pilgrim treat death as a tragic, yet inevitable, aspect of human life. The narrator imparts many deaths to the reader, but only in an indifferent tone. The reader, through the narrator's words, sees death as common and uninteresting. The narrator continually uses the phrase, "So it goes. after telling the reader of a death. Billy Pilgrim has the same attitude toward death, even before he meets the Tralfamadorians and becomes accustomed to their philosophies on life and death. Billy expects and accepts that he will die. He even welcomes death at times. At one point when Billy is in the war with Roland Weary and the rest of the Three Musketeers, a marksman fires at the group while they are walking down a road. The soldier boys run for cover. Billy, however, remains standing on the road, allowing the shooter a second chance.
Does Billy believe that death is inevitable or does he want to be killed?
I know I'm not part of your group, but I still felt I have a good answer to the question (and my group is at a standstill currently):
ReplyDeleteI would say Billy definitely believes that death is inevitable; on page 89/99, for a second time in the novel, Billy preemptively pulls the "so it goes" on Derby: "This volunteer was Edgar Derby, the high school teacher that would be shot to death in Dresden. So it goes". As for wanting to be killed, that seems to hold true as well. A few pages later, "She upset Billy by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and keep that life going, and Billy didn't really like life at all" (102).
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ReplyDeleteI think that Billy believes all death is inevitable, including his own. I also think he believes all death is equal and shouldn't be treated with different weights. Billy says the same thing after the deaths of Jesus Christ, his companions, some champagne, and a large group of soldiers. He sees death as just a part of life that doesn't define a person or a thing, it is just a part of them. For Billy, I think, death carries no more weight for a person than any other aspect of their life.
ReplyDeleteWell said- Billy definitely tends to place death on everything. Makes sense that Billy would think death is simply part of everything.
DeleteBilly does not seem to care at all about death because it does not seem to have much meaning to him. He probably does not give it much though because it's inevitable and will happen when it happens. I don't think that he wants to die, but maybe has a bit of curiosity surrounding the subject of death
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