Is the life of each individual already planned? Is each turn their life takes just in the path that has already been laid out for them? Or does each person have the power to choose the path in which they will follow everyday? In Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut leads the reader to believe in determinism or fate as the essences of life. Billy Pilgrim is a veteran of World War II and of the bombing of Dresden. This experience has greatly affected who he is. After the war Billy moved back to his hometown, got married, had some kids, and had a very successful carrer as an optometrist. Billy may sound like an ordinary guy, but there is one characteristic that Billy has that sets him apart from most other people; he can travel in time to different points in his life. He does nothing to try and change his course of action. Billy does not believe in free will. Which is why he does not try to change his paths of life. Does each person really have complete control over the paths they will follow in life? In reading Slaughterhouse Five the reader begins to see that maybe they do not have the option of free will in their life. Their life was pla

Throughout the entire novel Billy Pilgrim allows fate to control his life. He has already seen his whole life, and continually travels in time to different points in his past, present, and future. Billy was a creation of Kurt Vonnegut, and therefore the beliefs and questions that Vonnegut has about life come through in his character of Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut asked himself about the present: "how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep" (page 18). This was a question about determinism; maybe he could change his life. Maybe there was not a path in which he had to follow. We see this through Billy. There were times in which he had the opportunity to change the sequence of his life. Although he never actually did anything about it, he still had thoughts of free will and controlling his own life. Throughout Billy's life he endured many hardships, and even knowing that they were coming, he did nothing to stop or change them. There was nothing he could do, his life was already predetermined by fate; at least that was his belief by then. The Tralfamadorians taught Billy about his belief in determinism.

The Tralfamadorians thought that humans were crazy for believing in free will. "I've visited thirty one inhabited planets in the Universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will" (page 86). This was the response the Tralfamadorians gave Billy when he spoke of free will. "You sound to me as though you don't believe in free will", said Bi

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Approximate Word count = 1026
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)