Opinion Video: A Society Defined by Technology

Opinion Video

Farewell Billy Pilgrim

So this is how it goes: The Trafolmadorians are not actually real. Bummer, I know. But I was kindda expecting it. No, not really. Actually, to tell you the truth, I had no idea if they were true or not. On the other hand, one thing I am really sure of, I that I wish I could acquire Trafalmadorian beliefs, or at least some of them. I mean the way they look at life and see everything so simple and easy. The way they don’t get stressed with things that are bad, they just enjoy the good ones. I wish I was more like that. As I mentioned in my other blog , we spend too much time regretting and concentrating on the negative aspects of life, instead of enjoying the good times.

So yeah, everything Billy believed was not actually his belief or the Trafalmadorians’ belief it was things in his life and he twisted them up making a story out of them.
In my first blog I mentioned how I thought slaughterhouse was very similar to I am the Cheese because of the clues and the song My Name Is Yon Yonson. However, it had nothing to do with the song. But in I am the Cheese, Adam also uses characters and images he sees to create a story: by story I don’t mean one to entertain, I mean one that his own mind created because he was a little coo-coo, just like Billy.

I sincerely don’t thing people should feel pity for Billy, I mean, he was happy as he was, with his beliefs and his mind’s creations and all. He had nice ideals, (even if Trafalmadorians and their beliefs don’t exist), he accepted his life just as it was, and he taught he was normal. I think that’s exactly the problem we earthlings have, we feel pity for others that don’t look ok, but who accept themselves and we try to help them, or fix their situation when they really don’t want too. In other words, WE DON’T MIND OUR OWN BUISNESS.

Attachment... Good or Bad?

Recently I read Matilde Acevedo’s blog entry, about Billy Pilgrims’s life. She mentioned how he is completely lonely and although he has a wife and a daughter he is totally miserable. I completely agree. I mean, his daughter is so obnoxious, treats him so bad (As I mentioned in my past blog). And as Matilde said they got married just because it seemed like the right thing to do. However, they don’t even love each other. It’s kind of sad.  Although one thing I don’t agree with her is that Billy has adopted a way of thinking and living were this things don’t really matter. They are just part of a small thing in their life, therefore, he does not mind. 

Matilde asks herself why Billy is so different from his family, more precisely, from his mother. I actually think it is a consequence of all the things he has to live through: the death of his father, and World War II. These things were very difficult for him; hence he expressed his problems  in different ways. Who knows, maybe the Trafolmadorians are part of his ways to unburden.

I completely agree with her when she says that Vonnegut tries to show us messages through his books. More accurately, through the Trafolmadorians. I believe they are the only ones in the right mind, the ones who are mature and are able to see think completely different from us humans. He is trying to show us how we should be how we shouldn’t be attached to simple things, instead enjoy what we have, what we are, and accept thing as they are.  

I actually wish we were more like Billy. You know what, not us, me. I wish I was less attached to things, less worried about opinions and what society expects. However, when I think about that truly, that would leave me without any desires, nothing to fight for, nothing to dream about…

Which would be right?

Billy is Normal, We are Crazy

Billy is so strong and brave. If I knew the plain I was going to board was going to crash, I would certainly wouldn’t board it and would try to prevent the other people from doing it. But he didn’t. Because that’s the way things were supposed to happen, and there is no reason to change it. Hard, huh­­? Knowing you will be severely injured, unconscious for two days, and many people you know dying… I probably couldn’t deal with that.

The type of ideology Billy and the Trafalmadorians have, is really hard to achieve. We “machines” were not raised to belief this way. Society and our families shaped us not to accept things like these and to try to prevent them. However, this ideology is very similar to the Hindi  and the Buddhist believes. They accept their life just as it is because they were given that kind of life for some reason, usually to become better. If it’s bad, its okay because after rebirth they will have another kind of life, making it very similar to Trafalmadorian beliefs.

I think not many people are able to reach this level of believes; therefore only some are selected to experience this, in this case Billy. It’s because he is different that the Trafalmadorians take him to his saucer and teach him what the follow.

What if instead of Billy being crazy, we are the ones who are actually crazy and he is just in the right mind. Just like when we saw The Eye of the Beholder. Because he is different we think he is the different one but what if its actually the other way around… 

Ironical, but so True

Surviving an immense war like World War II to later be killed by one of your fellow soldiers?... Does that even sound right!? I’d expect the soldiers to be more united than anything, to be like brothers, very supportive , because at the end they are crossing through the same situation, a hard one, and thus, they should be there for each other. Instead, they are wishing the other would survive so when the war is over they could send someone to kill him. What kind of person in the right mind would wish this!

Certainly, Lazzaro is not in the right mind. He keeps on threatening other soldiers about getting them killed when the war is over. He threatens them but doesn’t even have the pants to kill them himself, instead he will send someone else to do the dirty work for him. Please! He makes everyone believe he is so tough and mean but he isn’t able to do his own dirty work.

The sad part however, is that Lazzaro promises Billy that if he gets out of war a live, he will get him killed… and he does fulfill that promise. About 30 years later…

I finally understood what Billy meant when he said that the most important thing he learned from the Trafalmadorians was that a person only appears to be dead because actually, he is still alive in the past. What he means is that there is always a past, present and future, so when someone dies he is still living in the past. It’s hard to explain, maybe it will be easier if you read this: “In the next moment Billy Pilgrim is dead. So it goes. So Billy experiences death for a while (…) Then he swings back into his life again, all the way back to an hour after his life was threatened by Lazzaro- in 1945.” (Pg. 143) People never really die, they will always be alive in a different time period.

Just like in The Time Travelers Wife. Like I mentioned on an earlier blog entry, Henry, the husband, sees his death a few times, and when he dies (in that time period) his wife and daughter cry, but  then, he goes to the past and lives happily with them. He is never dead. Just like Billy explains…

What a Barbarity, Barbara!

4 words to describe what I feel about this chapter: Barbara. Drives. Me. Insane. I mean, how can a person be so inapprehensible with her own father? Even worse, how can she be so intolerant with her father when she knows he is crazy? This really upsets me.

I am not sure if I feel this way because of situations I’ve lived or if everyone also feels this way. Anyways, I think she is so inpatient with him and so frivolous, she doesn’t even look like her daughter, instead she seems like a nurse or his doctor. 

“If you’re going to start acting like a child, maybe we’ll just have to treat you like a child.” (Pg. 131) WTF! He is crazy! He has mental issues! He is your father! Jeez! If I was in front of her I would pretty much insult her. It ironic you know, I am guessing Billy took care of her when she was young, and I am almost sure he did it patiently and with love, and know that the role changes… Barbara acts so “mature” and that’s way she treats him that way. The narrator says it himself, “it was very exciting for her, taking away his dignity In the name of love” (Pg. 132) She enjoyed make him feel inferior by showing her authority.

I can’t find a reasonable explication on why she acts that way, maybe she can’t deal with it anymore, she is tiered, but she feels an obligation to “take care” of him. Maybe she is scared that he will do something unpredictable and end up killing himself. Maybe she just does it so she won’t have a conscience that she didn’t help him.

What would be better, that someone does something good for you with GOOD intentions, or they do it just to get it out of the way or to at least say you tried?

Its sad how people like Barbara are not only on novels, they are everyday people who see their parents (when they are old of course) as a load, and don’t appreciate anything they did for them when they were small. The lack of patience, which I must admit am also guilty of it, is also sad. Our parents had so much patience when we were learning how to walk, with our homework’s, with our problems etc.

What is this lack of toleration towards them? 

Ignoring the Dreadful

One question I asked my self throughout the entire chapter: Are the Tralfamadorians a reflection of humans?

You may be asking yourself what do I mean (I am actually asking myself what do I mean), well, the idea of how they exhibit Billy in a zoo looks like a “black humorist” representation of humans to me.

I believe Vonnegut is trying to show us how irrational we are when we think we humans, know everything, and that we are more important than anybody else. Therefore, we try to change things, stop them and create them without worrying about the consequences these actions might bring to the entire planet.

 Vonnegut tries to show us this when the Tralfamadorians tell Billy that they even know when and how the universe will end because he starts talking on how, because of “Earthling” actions, all planets are in danger.  Nevertheless, they say that they are the ones who will end the universe and the only thing that earth has to do with it is that it will also be “wiped out”. As any human being would probably do, Billy asked them why  they didn’t do anything to prevent it, and they tell him “He has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way.” (Pg 111) Demonstrating that they don’t try to change things because they were supposed to go that way, and the universe was “meant” to end at that particular time, therefore there is no reason to prevent it.

Tralfamadorians kind of give me lessons on how to deal with “earthling” behavior. They seem, (to me at least), like these inferior creatures with green eyes, when actually they are far more mature than humans. One time they tell Billy Earthlings should start ignoring awful times and concentrating on good ones. It is so simple but so hard for us.

This lesson made me realize when, for example, a person you trust goes and tells a secret you trusted them with and you never forgive them. You only remember the bad thing that person did and not all the time he was there for you, and helped you with everything. That’s our sad truth...

We only concentrate on bad things and ignore the good ones.