Jordan Hand

Professor Raschke

AML 3311

7/10/2022

Time and Trauma: Analysis of the Structure of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five

Anti-war sentiment has been around for as long as there has been war, which is for most

of civilization. Today, it most often manifests itself into propaganda in the form of literature and

mass media. Among famous anti-war literature there is Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five,

published in 1969. From the start of the science fiction novel, the story is fragmented and

nonlinear, rather than chronological as it follows main character Billy Pilgrim through his

journey as he remains unstuck in time. While it is clear that this fragmentation has an effect on

the reception of the themes in the book, further analysis illustrates that, in Slaughterhouse Five,

Kurt Vonnegut uses a fragmented, non linear storyline to convey his views of time and the

trauma of memory all in pursuit of pushing his anti-war agenda.

In Slaughterhouse Five, we are introduced to the Tralfamadorians, an alien group from

outer space with strange morals and concepts of time, with books that are meant to be read all

and once instead of beginning to end. We are told through clues that Slaughterhouse Five is one

of these books. This speaks to the notion that author Kurt Vonnegut views time non-

conventionally, and is forcing the readers to absorb his book in this fashion. In Monica Loeb’s

“Vonnegut’s Dance With Death - Theme and Structure in Slaughterhouse Five”, Loeb writes that

this book recognizes three types of time. She labels these types as cyclical, historical, and

psychological (22). In this context, cyclical time is based on recurrence and rebirth. We see this

when Billy Pilgrim returns to the zoo in Tralfamadore in chapters 2 and 5 or to the train cars for
the prisoners of war between chapters 3 and 5. Historical time is the generalized non-linear,

chronological timeline that one would normally see in history textbooks or children’s stories.

While the book, in its entirety, does not represent the concept of historical time, Loeb writes that

historical time is seen through references to history and quotes. Lastly, psychological time is an

individual’s concept of the chain of events. Vonnegut establishes that the individualized memory

is separate from the collective memory, and his book is marketed largely towards people who

have preconceived notions and bias regarding the events that took place in the real world,

Vonnegut establishes Slaughterhouse Five as a whole represents how the three types of time

work together both in the book and in the real world, without explicitly saying it. Psychological

time affects the perceptions of historical time, which often becomes cyclical as history is inclined

to repetitiveness (22). This notion that history often repeats itself is a subtle way that Vonnegut

urges the audience to recognize signs of war and disaster before it can progress into true

devastation.

The mixed fragmentation of the events in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five also plays an

anti-war role by mirroring the effects of what is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a

disorder that many individuals, but often specifically war veterans, experience after a traumatic

event. Characterized by vivid flashbacks and nervous breakdowns, PTSD wreaks havoc through

the trauma of memory. Susanne Vees-Gulani argues in her article “Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim: A

Psychiatric Approach to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five”, that Billy Pilgrims status of

being “unstuck in time”, as mentioned first on page 28 of Vonnegut’s novel, is a metaphor for

PTSD. Vees-Gulani writes that “Psychologically, Billy has never fully left World War 11;

instead, in Jerome Klinkowitz’s words, he lives in a “continual present” (55)” (177). Readers can

see the first key characteristic of PTSD, flashbacks, when Billy Pilgrim experiences his
daughter’s wedding. Vonnegut writes “The wedding had taken place that afternoon in a gaily

striped tent in Billy’s backyard. The strips were orange and black. “ (91) The orange and black

stripes on the tent at the wedding mirror the orange and black stripes on the train cars for the

prisoners of war introduced previously, and Billy Pilgrim is transported immediately back to the

train cars, triggered by the color pattern at the wedding. Psychiatrists may argue, then, that Billy

Pilgrim was not unstuck in time in reality, but instead unstuck in time within his own mind,

unable to keep from experiencing the same memories over and over again with no hope of

changing the events. The second key characteristic of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is panic

attacks or mental breakdowns. Though Billy Pilgrim seems to be pretty much apathetic about

most things with the “and so it goes” mindset and having little to no agency, he does have these

breakdowns. If, from a psychological and psychiatric standpoint, it is assumed that Billy Pilgrim

is not actually time traveling but instead suffering from PTSD, then the time that Billy Pilgrim

weeps at the sight of the bleeding horses when Vonnegut writes “When billy saw the condition

of his means of transportation, he burst into tears. He hadn’t cried about anything else in the

war.” (252) is one of these mental breakdowns. At first glance, it may seem as though Billy is

really upset about the suffering in the horses, it is probably that he is instead just experiencing an

intense overwhelming feeling at the process of reliving his most horrific memories. In reality, he

could very likely just be sitting in his home or in a psychiatric facility, crying because he is

suffering from a nervous breakdown from his PTSD that forced him to relive the memory of

those horses.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is arguably one of the most unconventional anti-

war novels in the modern world. Never explicitly writing that war is bad, Vonnegut turns to a

hectic and overlapping structure to push his anti-war agenda. Inserting his opinions on the nature
of time and the types of time that exist in our world, Vonnegut pushes readers to recognize not

only that history repeats itself unless stopped in advance, but also that the individualized memory

is separate from the collective memory, making the audience rethink what they understand to be

true.
 Works Cited

Loeb, Monica. “Vonnegut's Duty - Dance with Death - Theme and Structure in

Slaughterhouse-Five.” DIVA, Umeå Universitet, 17 Feb. 2017, http://www.diva-

portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1075108.

Vees-Gulani, Susanne. “Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim: A Psychiatric Approach to Kurt

Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, vol.

44, no. 2, 2003, pp. 175–184., https://doi.org/10.1080/00111610309599944.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five: Kurt Vonnegut. Dial Press, 1969.