An Excuse For Humanity

In this chapter I found evidence of a hypothesis, actually more like a theory, that was discussed in class about why Billy Pilgrim's story was important, and why Vonnegut decided to write this book about the war in the way he did. After a lot of discussion in several classes, it was explained that everything in the book, form it's purpose to the tone of indifference that is used, is due to the concept of fate. This meant that because of what he had learned from the Tralmafadorians, which was that everything that happened at any point in one's life had always been happening and always would happen, Billy did not feel any strong emotions of any kind towards what was going on because he knew that it was the way things were meant to be. I have heard the argument that this creates a what could be called uncomfortable tone, however I think that the fact that Billy knows that things are the way they are because they have to be gives the story a very impartial tone that allows the reader to make his or her own conclusions.

When I looked into the concept of fate more in depth, I thought that there was more to it than met the eye. When I read the following passage, it was like something in my brain clicked, and I understood why Vonnegut wrote from this point of view. "<<><><><><<" (Vonnegut, pg.<><>) Billy doesn't care about what happens in the war because he knows that nothing different could have been done, and all this is done, in a way, to excuse humanity. How could humanity chose, out of the millions of options available to them, to create such a web of destruction, such a massacre, such a horrid event? To someone who knew nothing about our planet it is probably impossible to understand why humans rather go to war and have millions of their siblings killed if they had the option to do otherwise. A good example of this is the reaction of Lilu (the female lead) in the movie The Fifth Element when she gets to the letter "W" and sees the images of war. There is no justification for the horrors that it brings along. No one should ever defend war. It has never been the right thing to do, it isn't right today, and it never will be right. To someone who had to witness the horrors of this abomination, the only way to get past it and not hate humanity forever is to create an escape, a way in which society is excused for their behavior. Somehow, everything that has happened must become justifiable, or even more so, unimportant. How can this be achieved? By stating that everything happened because it was meant to be. All the situations people found themselves in, all the deaths, all the cruelty, were meant to happen from the start and there was absolutely no way to change any of it. I think that Vonnegut used this setting because it was both his way to get over his war trauma, but also as a way to help himself get over his probable hate for humanity, and in a way get his readers to notice how ridiculous and absurd many of the things that we have to witness and that we ourselves do are.