Slaughterhouse-Five clearly expresses Vonnegut's terrible outrage at the catastrophic fire-bombing of Dresden. But it does more than that. Its underlying theme is not just against the atrocities of Dresden but against all War. "Vonnegut's unorthodox stylistic approach which lacks any sequential path, draws the reader deeper into the Tralfamadorian world. Although Vonnegut's character was able to reconcile his life to some extent, Vonnegut was not." Vonnegut was never able to answer his own "Why me?" but in truth a broader question exists "Why any of us?"

The many aspects of Billy's life which his new vision touch are clearly outlined in Slaughterhouse-Five. For example, whenever there is a tragic death or an entire city is destroyed Billy says what all Tralfamadorians say, "so it goes." Billy does not feel remorse or anger when he hears of the war in Vietnam because it is just a frame in time, which has, is and always will happen. Just as the universe will be destroyed by the Tralfamadorians but no attempt is made to stop it. At one point in the novel Billy sees a war movie in reverse, he describes it as follows: "The formation flew over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism, which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored in neatly racks. When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were shipped to factories where operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents...so they would never hurt anybody again." Vonnegut uses this imagery to dramatize effectively the cruelty of bombing. Billy's Tralfamadorian view of this war film is an obvious improvement over the forward version.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. New York: Dell Publishing, 1969.

He creates a new world where he can be free from his guilt. That world is called Tralfamador. The Traflamadorian world provided Billy Pilgrim with the escape that he needed from his guilt. The Traflamadorian people are not locked in a three dimensional realm. They are not locked in the frames of time to which the human world is forced to live in. Traflamadorians can shift through time as seamlessly as humans can walk towards a point. This ability allows them to focus on the pleasant moments in the history of the Universe and ignore the aspects of time they dislike. Thus, the fire-bombing of Dresden is just a tiny frame in the vast space time continuum. The guilt of Billy's being saved is reconciled by eliminating the existence of a past, present, and future. Since any fraction of time is accessible in the Tralfamadorian world death is just a tiny part of existence that is ignored like the fire-bombing of Dresden. Billy Pilgrim reinvents himself and his universe to gain purpose in his guilt ridden life. The Tralfamadorians are real to Billy because without them he cannot live with himself. Billy believes that a Tralfamadorian ship took him to be an exhibit of a human being in a Tralfamadorian Zoo. On Tralfamador, Billy is exposed to an entire new way of thinking which neutralizes the "Why me?" question. While the Tralfamadores where transporting Billy to Tralfamador, he as

Some common words found in the essay are:
Billy Pilgrim, Billy's Tralfamadorian, Tralfamadorians Billy, Billy Tralfamadorians, Tralfamador Tralfamadores, Slaughterhouse Five, Children's Crusade, Pilgrim Billy's, War II, Pilgrim Optometrist, billy pilgrim, tralfamadorian view, slaughterhouse five, kurt vonnegut, one's actions, tralfamadorian world, children's crusade, feel remorse, fire-bombing dresden, feelings guilt, responsible one's actions, billy accepting tralfamadorian, kurt vonnegut york, accepting tralfamadorian view, tralfamadorian view comes,
Approximate Word count = 2205
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)