Vonnegut also aims to express the internal destruction that war causes among individuals who live through it. The nonlinear, extremely unpredictable layout of the novel directly correlates to the internal chaos Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist, feels after the war. Billy skips back and forth in time. Events happening in his current life seem to trigger flashbacks of terrors he experienced during the war. He is so shell shocked, so mentally distressed by the horrific war he has experienced that he is “unstuck from time” and unable to ground himself in reality. He even convinces himself that he is abducted by friendly, peaceful aliens called Tralfamadorians who live in a fourth dimension where all time exists eternally and simultaneously. He reports that they explain to him that because of this fourth dimension, there is no free will. With this knowledge the aliens become an outlet through which Billy dispels the …show more content…
As discussed, he highlights the obvious downsides of war. For example, soldiers did not have basic supplies like boots resulting in frostbite, they experienced bombings, lootings, constant hunger, and the overall destruction of war that clearly left an impact on Vonnegut and in turn his protagonist whom he places his personal experiences upon. The American soldiers portrayed in the novel are mostly weak and run down while the British soldiers are portrayed as fit, tough, “real” soldiers. This is important to note because the characters of British soldiers are POWs that were captured and the very beginning of the war in Dunkirk so they were never exposed to the true destruction and death that the American POWs were. The British did not understand why the Americans were so weak and even looked down on them for their lack of hygiene, but in reality the British were just extremely lucky to have escaped the war before the horror truly