Tralfamadorian Perspective in Slaughterhouse-Five

We concluded that Vonnegut’s overall message in the book is that one can’t always control things in life because they are already predetermined (fate vs. free will), and that even in horrific situations life continues to go on. We came to this conclusion by understanding Vonnegut’s techniques in his writing and understanding his experiences. Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorian perspective on life to show that even though there are things that are going to happen in life to you; life doesn’t just stop going on.

We also can see that Billy knows that a lot of things in life are predetermined and that it just happens to be fate. In this way, it opened our eyes to see the bigger picture that Vonnegut was explaining about life. For our project, we decided to make mountains out of clay and a clock that stands in between the mountains. The mountains are supposed to be representative of how life never stops growing and that it can constantly evolve and changes.

The clock is also a metaphor because it comes up a lot in the novel, even when there is death and things that we can’t control life will just continue forth, We also painted our mountains, clock, and platform to make it look realistic to the real world. The mountains and clock support Vonnegut’s message because the Tralfamadorians even compare life to the Rocky Mountains. They say that life is just composed of precious moments that are everlasting and that show the past, present, and future, and that one is wrong if one believe the moments go in order and aren’t permanent.

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The mountains are supposed to represent those moments and how life is really just comprised of these times in the past present and future The clock never stops clicking showing Vonnegut’s message of how life is continuous and that we just have to accept our fate “The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance.

They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them” Vonnegut uses tone and the Tralfamadorian’s point of view on how they can view things all at once rather than at separate times. Just as we can look at the mountains as a whole, our moments in life are precious and never really fade through the past present and future. This reveals how life can move and flow as Vonnegut believes even if we feel like at one point it ends, “Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Well here we are, Mr. Pilgrim trapped in the amber of this moment.” Vonnegut uses technique by describing the Tralfamadorians’ point of view in the sense that there isn’t really an explanation for life to them. They take everything as it comes When Vonnegut states how life is captured in “moments,“ life is able to go on and continue even if there are things that are predetermined revealing fate in certain circumstances “All time is all time It does not change.

It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is” Vonnegut uses diction to reveal the truth about time, and how it can just be considered to be everlasting. By knowing that time “simply is“ the audience is able to grasp that time is almost something that doesn‘t have an answer. Life will continue to move on no matter the circumstance. It reveals that even the things that are predetermined in life are just a part of life, “There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are deprs of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.” When Vonnegut writes this about the Tralfamadorian’s literature it’s a metaphor for time and how they view it. It’s almost as to say life doesn‘t really have a “beginning, middle, and end,” The books are a part of life in one big moment that we can’t control. Through this not only do you see fate, but how life is able to consist of these moments in the past, present, and future.

Through this life is revealed to yes, he predetermined but also never ending “He has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that wayt” Vonnegut uses repetition in the world “always” to emphasis a destiny that is already planned for you and how we can’t always have control, even when we think that we do. The Tralfamadorians know the end of the world will come to an end at the press of a button, but they know that’s how life is supposed to work out. By hearing the word “always,” Vonnegut makes us understand that things in life will be set out for you and that we have no control revealing fate vs. free will and so it goes.