Free Will in Slaughterhouse Five

The kidnapping of Billy Pilgrim, or at least, the way in which it is played out, seems to be one of the most direct attacks on the war in Vietnam. The Tralfamadorians tell Billy his kidnapping is no more optional for either party than it is for a fly caught in amber to remain caught. They say, "Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why." (p.77) This statement, which seems on the surface to claim that man has no free will, is in fact stating that man does not often enough use it. The year the book was published [1969], and indeed for a number of years before that, the youth of America had undergone a dramatic shift in attitude. They were no longer easily placated by assurances that Government Knew Best, and they were demanding that the atrocity of the Vietnam War [which, they were continually reminded, was actually a Police Action] be brought to an end. The politicians of the day were nonplussed, and like all people incapable of truly original thought, had no idea what to do. They were flies caught in the amber of political tradition, and were trying very hard to stay that way.

The fire-bombing of Dresden was itself another thinly veiled attack on politicians whose actions carried no moral weight. The leaders of the day were asking the youth to commit pointless and violent acts upon the youth of another nation. The reasons given were old favourites: Government Knows Best; and Your Parents Answered Your Country's Call And So Shall You. The fire bombing was, in the light of the Tralfamadorian's explanation of time and the concept of free will, a great metaphor for this pointlessness, and a very well-written attack. Vonnegut writes,

It wasn't safe to come out of the shelters until noon the next day. When the Americans and their guards did come out, the sky was black with smoke. The sun was and angry little pinhead. Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighbourhood was dead.

So it goes. (p.178)

One final attack, this time not on the politicians, but on the older members of the populace, lay in the daze in which Billy Pilgrim went through his daily life after the war. Vonnegut writes, "Billy had fallen asleep while examining a female patient who was in a chair on the other side of the owl. He had fallen asleep at work before." (p.56) This much less blatant attack is meant to indicate t hat the older members of the populace have been lulled into accepting their lot, and living with what life and government has given them. After all, didn't Government Know Best?

The discussion of free will in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five seems at first to be a denial of the existence of free will. On close inspection, however, it is in fact a statement of the opinion that the politicians and general populace of the day had become so steeped in tradition, propaganda, and rhetoric, that they refused to exercise it. Vonnegut was making the statement that the leaders of the day were flies caught in amber, and wished to remain so. While an analysis on this level works best using the Vietnam War, there are other levels to it as well, but to analyze them would require a book of its own, not an essay. So it goes.