Insanity In Billy Pilgrim's Slaughterhouse

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Why is it that Billy is the only human to experience time differently? Is it because he is mentally insane or is he really experiencing time that way? In Slaughterhouse-Five the main character, Billy Pilgrim, is a veteran of World War Two who has an unusual perception of time. He thinks he experiences his life in all jumbled up order. Ever since the war his life is happening in mixed up order and he believes this is because he is unstuck in time, but the reason he views time this way is because Billy went through traumatic experiences and now he could have a form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Through his service in the military Billy has been beaten by an ally, captured by Germans, humiliated, starved, and treated like an animal. Also later in the story Billy is one of the few survivors of a plane crash where he receives a fractured skull which also could have contributed to some mental issues. All of these things could have led to Billy’s mind coping with the stress by making up the Tralfamadorians and watching his life or the life he wants to have pass by in mixed up order. Billy was in an abusive relationship with Roland Weary. When Billy was surviving in the wilderness with Weary, Weary made Billy basically dependent…show more content…
When in a traumatic experience all someone would want to do is escape from it and since in the middle of the war there was no way for Billy to escape from the reality, he slipped further into his mind where he was able to imagine what life would be like if he survived all of these terrible experiences. Such as when Billy went to the latrine he described it as “his vision of hell and almost immediately after Billy is on his honeymoon with his bride” (126). This shows that after a bad experience Billy’s view on what’s going on around him changes to a happier memory but somehow he always ends back up in the middle of the
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