Tralfalmadore - Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five

From the beginning of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five it is made aware what the first and last words are in the book as well as a few parts in the middle. The story leaps from one instant in time of a war to another instant of alien abduction without weaving the moments together. All these moments fit in with each other at one point or another as the novel goes on, making it easier to understand what goes on and what Billy Pilgrim is thinking about.

As first it is difficult to accept the theory that Billy has been abducted by aliens and has been exposed to a whole new concept of experiencing time. Instead of experiencing life as a line of moments stringed together the Trafalmadorian aliens experience it as moments they are able to view whenever they feel. A certain moment is not unreachable but is rather frozen until is to be visited again.

This concept is difficult to understand because in reality no one can physically travel back into a moment to experience it again. Billy describes it as being "stuck out of time," but in reality he dozes off or loses consciousness when he experiences this time travel.

Many of his encounters with the aliens are similar to scenes in books of a science-fiction author, Kilgore Trout, who is a character in the book. When Billy was in the hospital, his roommate had a collection of these sci-fi novels. He would read them aloud and lend a few to Billy to read. The description of the aliens in the book was very similar to the aliens of Tralfalmadore.

Also, there was a scene in a book of a man and woman from earth being held captive in a zoo on a different planet. Billy believes he was taken to a similar zoo on Tralfalmadore with Montana Wildhack, an actress from earth, who he also happened to see in a picture in a bookstore at one point in his life. All these familiar settings in his life relate to his experiences on Tralfalmadore.

This belief of abduction by aliens and a blurry memory can be explained by his experiences at war in Dresden. Fire bombings and horrible visions of dead naked bodies being burned could definitely have an impact on a person. Unfortunately for Billy, it completely altered his mind. He no longer has a sense of reality.

He has combined his thoughts with scenes from the Trout novels and believes he traveled back in time or to another planet whenever he drifts off to sleep or wants to escape a bad moment. The war has affected him deeply and that is why Vonnegut has combined the scenes of war with alien abduction. To show how a moment in ones life can change their entire way of viewing reality.