1. In chapter 3, Billy considers "...a framed prayer on his office wall which expressed his method for keeping going." It reads:
"GOD GRANT ME
THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT
THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE
COURAGE
TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN,
AND WISDOM ALWAYS
TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE.
Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future" (60).
Do you think this is good advice? What is the irony for Billy?
Quotation Explained: The irony for Billy is that he is struggling to deal with the Tralfamadorian belief that time moves cyclical, and things are constantly changing. However, in the world that Billy lives in, everyone believes in the linear movement of time and things would never be “changing.” Humans would not have the ability to change the “things [they] can,” and it is ironic in Billy’s case because though he can witness the past, present, and future, he cannot do anything to change the predetermined events – he does not accept the things he cannot change; the irony for Billy parallels the irony for soldiers of war.
2. "I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is" (86).
Quotation Explained: This is the main view of the Tralfamadorians, explaining to Billy the illusion of free will on Earth and how they exist in the fourth dimension, believing that time is cyclical and constantly moving. The alien's inability to acknowledge free will suggests that perhaps humans do not actually have free will, and Vonnegut uses the irony and symbolism associated with time and the notion that humans are powerless to change the future. By pointing out how absurd the alien's view of the world is, Vonnegut is perhaps trying to emphasize that people DO have control over the world, especially in terms of war, and that people must question the authority, instead of blindly accepting their fate. Tralfamadorians, as described, literally have no eyes, so they represent the people that are "blind" and ignorantly accept what "simply is" instead of challenging the events that the Tralfamadorians believe to be predestined.
2. "I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is" (86).
Quotation Explained: This is the main view of the Tralfamadorians, explaining to Billy the illusion of free will on Earth and how they exist in the fourth dimension, believing that time is cyclical and constantly moving. The alien's inability to acknowledge free will suggests that perhaps humans do not actually have free will, and Vonnegut uses the irony and symbolism associated with time and the notion that humans are powerless to change the future. By pointing out how absurd the alien's view of the world is, Vonnegut is perhaps trying to emphasize that people DO have control over the world, especially in terms of war, and that people must question the authority, instead of blindly accepting their fate. Tralfamadorians, as described, literally have no eyes, so they represent the people that are "blind" and ignorantly accept what "simply is" instead of challenging the events that the Tralfamadorians believe to be predestined.
