SlaughterHouse Five

The more I think about this novel, the more I find myself separating this question into three main sections. Similar to Beloved, this is an incredibly fragmented story. Though I believe that the time line is much more intentionally broken up than in Beloved; I believe Vonnegut is trying to make more of a statement with his time-traveling. But I'm digressing. I separated the terms of happiness into three sections. The first being Billy Pilgrim's happiness, the second being the readers, and the third finally being Vonnegut's. I feel like with this novel, the character, the reader, and the author are all experiencing very different reactions and emotions with the same text.

For our "hero" Billy Pilgrim, I don't think he ever finds true happiness. The closest he comes is at the very end of the novel in the midst of all the wreckage shortly after the war ends in Dresden. That is really the only time he is described to be happy, yet I'm not entirely convinced that this character is capable of achieving true happiness. For the majority of the novel, he floats in and out of his life experiences. Though he does witness some tragic events, he is not an overly depressed character. I do think there are times when Billy is content with himself and with his life. When he communicates with the aliens, he is perhaps more at ease or content than at other points, say, when he is in WWII. That small sliver of happiness at the end of the novel is deceiving. I don't think he achieved anything other than relief in that moment. The war was over, and despite the claims this is a war novel, I think that the major event Vonnegut targets is the bombing of Dresden. So for Billy, I'm not sure he ever finds that happiness.

In terms of the reader, I think we are meant to experience happiness at all the times Billy is faced with a challenge, hardship, or otherwise difficult moment in his life. One of the fundamental points Vonnegut believes in is that the hero or the main character in a novel must be put through the ringer; he must be beaten down and thrown into bad situations. I think, in the mind of Vonnegut, we the reader experience happiness when Billy is struggling. It's mere entertainment. It wouldn't be much of a story if everything went according to plan. Billy's non-linear pattern of life combined with his exceptionally difficult experiences combine to form the character we can not only be thankful we're not, but also find happiness in reading about.

Finally, I think Vonnegut's happiness exists in his ability to create a novel so utterly confusing and complex, that we all can't help but wonder what it's truly about. His pleasure of writing, to me, is not clean cut or straight forward by any means. Though the text itself isn't in difficult language or elaborately composed, his ideas are as twisted and circular as Billy's life lines. The intentions of the story are that there shouldn't be any concrete conclusions. I do believe that this is a book ultimately about the war, but I'm not sure what to make of that. Vonnegut doesn't reveal his true emotions anywhere in plain sight. But I think that's the joy of his novel. That's the fun of it.