Vonnegut was tormented by this question and through Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Slaughte

Human vision is something so narrow and restricted...to convey to themselves what it must be like they have to imagine a creature with a metal sphere around his head who looks down a long, thin pipe seeing only a tiny speck at the end. He cannot turn his head around and he is strapped to a flatcar on rails which goes in one direction (Vonnegut).

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 64)

Although Billy finds peace in the many positive aspects of the Tralfamadorian mind-set, there also exist many negatives to his new vision. 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 Tralfamdorians 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 Tralfamdorians 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 Tralfamadorians are real to Billy because without them he cannot live with himself (Lundquist 82). Billy believes that he was taken by a Tralfamdorian ship to be an exhibit of a human being in a Tralfamdorian Zoo. On Tralfamador, Billy is exposed to an entire new way of thinking which neutralizes the "Why me?" question. In the Tralfamdorian view of the Universe, guilt does not exist because in their view one is not responsible for one's actions. Whatever will, or has happened will always happen and did always happen. There is no way to change the course of events. Everything is predetermined. Billy is told by the Tralfamadores (regarding Tralfamador) that:

Billy by accepting the Tralfamadorian view of the world frees himself from the metal sphere and from his guilt. Much of Billy's guilt rested on his view of time and nature. Before he was introduced to the Tralfamadorian viewpoint he believed in crusading against war and the death of the innocent and felt guilty and upset when another human's life was blindly taken. After coming to newly understand the limits of human vision and the naivete of human-kind, namely that one can change what will happen and guide one's actions Billy felt no sympathy for death and made no attempt to right injustice and stop the atrocities of war.

With the Tralfamdorian view comes another steep price, free will. Billy is told by the Tralfamadorians that free will is a uniquely human belief. (Schatt 82) He is told that war, disease, and even the end of the universe is all pre-

Some common words found in the essay are:
Billy Pilgrim, Billy's Tralfamadorian, Billy Tralfamdorians, Vonnegut Billy, Tralfamador Billy, Slaughterhouse Five, Tralfamdorians Billy, War II, Children's Crusade, Pilgrim Billy's, billy pilgrim, tralfamdorian view, children's crusade, one's actions, tanner 198, tralfamadorian world, guilt billy's, feelings guilt, tralfamadorian view, fire-bombing dresden, 198 tralfamdorian view, accepting tralfamadorian view, tanner 198 tralfamdorian, billy accepting tralfamadorian, one's actions billy,
Approximate Word count = 2090
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)