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Catherine Melnick

Mr. Smith

Honors English

14 March 2023

Trauma versus Time

War has created trauma for many, through many instances of time, as well as for different

generations. Time is an interesting topic to discuss, as it’s quite complicated and has had many

people wondering how it truly works. Whether time traveling is possible and how we can

analyze our understanding of it. As well as its ability to help us cope with trauma. Another

aspect is how past events affect the future generations, and how they will see the history that was

made. In the novels, Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut, and “On Earth We’re Briefly

Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong, they both demonstrate different outlooks on time and how

reflecting often helps with coping with trauma, as well as how war affects us and is seen by the

different generations.Vonnegut was closely impacted and traumatized by WWII, in which he

reflects some of his trauma in his book.

Time is a concept that is often explored throughout “Slaughterhouse-Five”, as well as in

“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”. While they both showcase time, they each describe it in

very different ways. In “Slaughterhouse-Five”, characters such as Billy and the Tralfamadorians

experience and look at time as a series of permanent moments that tell a beautiful story. different

ways. Vonnegut writes,“The Tralfalmadorians can look at all different moments just the way we

can look at a stretch of Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all moments
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are, and they can look at any moment follows another one, like beads on a string” (Vonnegut 27).

Tralfalmadorians are able to look at and analyze time as a literal sequence of events. This

interpretation of time for them is different than for humans. Humans have many memories, but

some may become vague. According to Vonnegut, the Tralfamadorians can clearly see every

instance of time and every moment, just as it happened. Connecting back to Billy, the novel

discusses Billy’s ability to time travel multiple times in the book, as well as his ability to

communicate with aliens. This is a metaphor to signify his trauma, as he is facing all his prior

memories at once. An interpretation of time is also suggested when Vonnegut writes… “Billy

Pilgrim nestled like a spoon with the hobo on Christmas night, and he fell asleep, and he traveled

in time to 1967 again–to the night he was kidnapped by a flying saucer from Tralfamadore”

(Vonnegut 71). Billy Pilgrim going through time travel may as well be a figment of his

imagination, but this perspective of time traveling of being able to time travel and to interact

with aliens gives an outlook of how Billy’s trauma has followed him. Time is also talked about in

“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”. “It only takes a single night of frost to kill off a generation.

To live, then, is a matter of time, timing” (Vuong 4). Vuong covers an entirely different

philosophy of time, saying how fast and easy it is to kill off a lot of people, referring to war, but

living requires more time. This is significant as people who weren’t involved in a war most

likely got to live a long life and the future generations may never know the true war experience

and how traumatizing it can be. Vuong and Vonnegut’s two interpretations of time are very

unique to compare and contrast.

Along with the essence of time, it creates different generations who gain different varying

experiences than previous. Through a child’s eyes, war may not seem like a big deal, but to
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someone who witnessed it or knew someone close to witness it, war gains a whole other

meaning. Vonnegut and Vuong describe the views of how war is perceived through the later

generations. Vonnegut writes, “In the suburbs, the women and children dug rifle Pits” (Vonnegut

215). This shows that Children who were witnesses of the war, experienced and perceived the

war differently, versus how the later generations may perceive war. In Vuong’s novel, it

demonstrates an example of how children living in a more modern time period may look at war.

Children in modern day may not see war as such a serious thing. Vuong writes, “That time when

I was five or six and, playing a prank, leapt out at you from behind the hallway door, shouting

“Boom!” You screamed, face raked and twisted, then burst into sobs, clutched your chest as you

leaned against the door, gasping. I stood bewildered, my toy army helmet tilted on my head. I

was an American boy parroting what I saw on TV. I didn’t know that the war was still inside you,

that there was a war to begin with, that once it enters you it never leaves—” (Vuong 4). Vuong’s

writing conveys how different later generations perceive war and don’t truly understand the war

experience. Both the evidence from Vonnegut and Vuong convey that children from different

generations had to deal with or understand war differently.

The interpretations of time, as well as how different generations are impacted by war are

discovered in the two novels to convey their coping mechanisms of war trauma. Much more time

has passed since both of these novels were written. But both of the topics discussed still get

talked about today. Current generations are still learning about war, and the trauma it created.

Following that, people are also creating more philosophies on time. The subjects are still relevant

to be learned about and discussed.

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Works Cited

Vonnegut, Kurt, and Solveig Odland. Slaughterhouse - Five, or, the Children's Crusade.

Aschehoug, 1994.

Vuong, Ocean. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel. Penguin Books, 2021.

Skill Not Foundational Proficient Advanced

Yet
Identifies a topic Appears in first Thesis establishes a
paragraph complex claim

Thesis establishes a
topic and a claim

Addresses themes
Thesis from both texts

Comments:
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Includes two or Includes evidence Includes specific,

fewer sources from at least 2 meaningful, and
sources that clearly well-chosen
Some evidence relate to the thesis evidence that relates
relates to the thesis to the thesis
Includes evidence
from the text to
Evidence support
understanding of
thematic element

Comments:

Summarizes sources Explains how Explains

evidence supports well-selected points
topic sentence of of comparison
individual among sources and
paragraphs evidence and their
connection to the
Analysis Explains how thesis
evidence supports
the thesis of the
essay

Comments:

Little connection Explains how the Clearly explains

between texts; texts/sources are relationships among
difficult for the related, though texts (how they are
reader to see how points could be similar and
the texts are related more selective or different, provide
better developed differing
Synthesis perspectives,
Includes multiple enhance
sources in each body understanding when
paragraph placed near each
other etc.)

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Some elements Heading is correctly No errors in MLA

missing or some formatted format
errors in MLA format
Pages are numbered

In-text citations are

correctly formatted

Works Cited format:

hanging indent,
MLA Format double-spaced,
alphabetized, starts
on a new page

Works Cited: each

source entry is in
correct MLA format
Comments:

NY Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are

basic proofreading correctly integrated correctly integrated

Follows essay Shows evidence of

Conventions organization careful proofreading

Shows evidence of
proofreading

Comments: