Could theirs be the ideal society? It's quite possible. Vonnegut's portrayal of the extraterrestrials known as Tralfamadorians is nothing short of amazing. Their knowledge, insight, and beliefs are both stunning and thought-provoking. To be quite honest, it was the only element of the story that grasped and kept my attention. Who would have thought that upon opening a book titled Slaughter House-Five that they would have been greeted by aliens resembling toilet plungers and swept away to another planet? Although the Tralfamadorians did add an interesting twist to the plot of the story, one still has to wonder what Vonnegut's purpose for planting an alien race into his supposed "anti-war" book is.

The Tralfamadorians had a significant influence on Billy Pilgrims life, and the way he looked at life in general. Throughout Billy's life he was surrounded by death- he was the lone survivor of a plane wreck, survived the bombing that demolished the city of Dresden, his wife died of carbon-monoxide poisoning, and so on, but he doesn't mourn the same way most Americans do. As Billy puts it," Now, when I myself hear that someone is dead, I simply shru

Billy learned a lot from the Tralfamadorians' lifestyle and beliefs, but was this indeed the ideal society? It just may be. Maybe Vonnegut was writing about the ideal society of which we should hope to mirror one day. To be able to view things in such a way as the Tralfamadorians would make life a lot easier. Living might be a lot more enjoyable if things weren't analyzed to death. Sometimes things happen solely because that's just the way that the event is supposed to happen, or as Billy Pilgrim would say, "If the accident will."

For all we know, the whole Tralfamadorian society and belief system could have just been written in to give the author the freedom to use Billy's flashbacks when and where he wanted in the story. It's a possibility that there really wasn't a point to their existence. Or maybe that's what Vonnegut's reasoning was- there isn't always an answer, and we don't always have to ask why. This is one of the most intriguing things that is said by the Tralfamadorians. "That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because the moment simply is. Here we are, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why." (76-77) Maybe one of the points that Vonnegut tried to make was that we as humans look too deep into things. Maybe faith should just be placed in the fact that things happen simply because they were meant to. Why waste time analyzing everything that happens to and around us, when in the end we usually still end up with nothing, but a little more comfort if we can place the blame elsewhere.

Upon reading other interpretations of Vonnegut's extraterrestrials, I have concluded that everyone will take the concept differently. Maybe that's what he was hoping for. I have taken it into mind, and it has shifted my prospective on things a little, but maybe someo

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Approximate Word count = 1243
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)