Billy Pilgrim: Murdered?

I know many people wouldn’t opt to do this: two reading blogs about the same chapter. But for me, “Chapter 4” had so many details to look at and analyze (as it might be obvious from my past reading blog). In the past blog I really got into talking about Vonnegut’s use of “mustard gas and roses” as a description of his breath. But I left out other stuff that I also consider important in the chapter, for example the role fate or destiny plays in the Tralfamadorian ideology. Or how the chronological order of things directly affect its meaning. Or finally how Billy’s death is foreshadowed.

After Billy receives the call from the drunk stranger, he watches a movie about World War II. But as he is unstuck in time, he is able to see the movie backwards and then forwards. Here is where the idea of “order of events=meaning” comes into our mind. It could also be a simple fact of our perception. When Billy watches the movie backwards, its meaning is also turned around. Vonnegut tells us how the movie now talks about planes taking back all the damage they did, taking back the bombs, leaving them on the factories, the bombs being unassembled, and how everything is turned back to the point where it cannot hurt anyone. In his mind, Billy continues this backwards movie, until Hitler becomes a baby, and all humanity works back towards creating Adam and Eve. This is a perfect example of Vonnegut further messing around with the concept of time in Billy’s story. This event also defies the Tralfamadorian perception of time, making us see how chronological order of things is important for its meaning. If Billy had the same perception of time as the Tralfa
madorians, this wouldn’t have happened, because they think that each moment simply is and there is no further explanation of that. But when Billy changed the chronological order of the movie, each moment was altered to represent something completely different.

In my past blog post I had mentioned how interesting it was that Vonnegut could introduce little details that seemed insignificant, but actually contributed a lot to the development or understanding of the story. In the beginning of the chapter, this detail is the breath of mustard and gas. But later on, Vonnegut actually foreshadows Billy’s death. When Weary dies in the boxcar, he let everyone know that it had been Billy’s fault, and he wanted to be avenged. Paul Lazzaro, whom Vonnegut describes as having even worst of a body than Billy, had promised to Weary that he would make Billy pay for his death. In fact, I’m not sure if this is actually how Billy is going to die, but it could be very possible. Seeing how Vonnegut gives away important parts of the story in such small details. I’m eager to keep reading and find out whether if this is actually the way that Billy Pilgrim dies.