Free Slaughterhouse-Five Essays: Manipulation of Time and Place :: Slaughterhouse-Five Essays

Slaughterhouse Five - Manipulation of period and Place  Kurt Vonneguts manipulation of season and roam adds a science- fiction piece to Slaughterhouse-Five. Structarally, the novel is far from traditional. billy goat Pilgrim, the protagonist, jumps from place to place and is in a constant time warp while on the artificial satellite Tralfamadore. Since Vonnegut uses the planet Tralfamadore and the Tralfamadorian people to take Billy from place to place and time grade to time frame, in the novel he constantly respects the evince "So it goes," which describes the Tralfamadorians view of death. Vonneguts manipulation of time and place is definitely unusual. Billy, an eye doctor in Ilium, New York, finds himself "time tripping" with the people on Tralfamadore. To the Tralfamadorians time does not exist. Billy can be on Tralfamadore for years, while save cosmos absent from earth for a microsecond (26). Billys "time tripping" to a fault allow s Vonnegut to join the three main settings and experiences of the book the horrors of the war and Dresden, Billys normal conduct in Illim, and his time on Tralfamadore. Billy has no control oer his being in a time warp. In the midst of his lifetime in New York he will suddenly find himself Tralfamadore he has become "unstuck in time" ( 22). The Tralfamadorians eventually show Billy the important moments of his life, but they do not always show them in sequence. They do this so Billy can fully understand the veritable reasons for and the importance of the events. Vonnegut also uses this tactic of time manipulation. He tells and shows the occurrences of Billys life in a juxtaposed manner which parallels the "time tripping." The "time tripping" and being "unstuck in time" allow Vonnegut to present the events of the war in a sequence through which they would have the greatest impact on the reader. Vonneguts manipulation of time and place in Slaug hterhouse-Five allows him to use the phrase "So it goes" for special impact . The phrase appears after every death scene. It allows the couple from death to life, and it also allows Vonnegut to change the time frame or place of the action. According to one source, the phrase "So it goes" appears in the novel everywhere 100 times (Boomhower).