Quote 1
"Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? [...] Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why." (4.7.4-6)
What do you think of this idea that there is no need to explain anything, because it simply is? Why is Billy so pleased to give up on the whole idea of free will?
Quote 2
"If you know [that the Universe will be destroyed by a Tralfamadorian pilot who presses a button]," said Billy, "isn't there some way you can prevent it? Can't you keep the pilot from pressing the button?"
"He has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way." (5.44.1-2)
What kinds of ethical problems does this Tralfamadorian perspective on fate seem to present? Are these ethical problems applicable to Billy and his own choices? If so, how?
Quote 3
I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. (1.16.1)
Billy's son Robert had a lot of trouble in high school, but then he joined the famous Green Berets. He straightened out, became a fine young man, and he fought in Vietnam. (2.4.1)
How does the narrator's treatment of his sons differ from Billy's treatment of Robert Pilgrim? Which do you think is the more ethically responsible? And why does Billy offer so little insight into Robert's character? He seems completely estranged from both his children. All this about Robert "straightening out and becoming a fine young man" reads more like a movie summary than a real assessment by a caring father of his son's character.
Quote 4
On Tralfamadore, says Billy Pilgrim, there isn't much interest in Jesus Christ. The Earthling figure who is most engaging to the Tralfamadorian mind, he says, is Charles Darwin—who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements. (10.2.1)
Darwin's idea of evolution teaches that species die out for a reason. But in a sense, it seems odd that the Tralfamadorians would appreciate this idea, because they deliberately refuse to ask the question Darwin answers: "Why?"
Quote 5
Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next. (2.1.5)
Billy has not only just lost control over the most fundamental constant we come to expect in life—time—but he also feels phony in performing his own life. This lack of conviction about who he is makes Billy a nontraditional hero for a novel. Who in the novel does have a strong sense of self? And is this necessarily a good thing to have?
Quote 6
Billy, after all, had contemplated torture and hideous wounds at the beginning and the end of nearly every day of his childhood. Billy had an extremely gruesome crucifix hanging on the wall of his little bedroom in Ilium. A military surgeon would have admired the clinical fidelity of the artist's rendition of all Christ's wounds—the spear wound, the thorn wounds, the holes that were made by the iron spikes. Billy's Christ died horribly. He was pitiful. (2.19.15)
One reason Billy does not seem to seek comfort in God (even though he is a chaplain's assistant before he is taken captive by the Germans) is that he associates Christianity with a suffering Christ. Billy himself is frequently compared to Christ—in the epigraph and because of his job in the army—so why would he seek solace in a religion that is okay with his suffering?
Quote 7
"[Dresden] was all right," said Billy. "Everything is all right, and everybody has to do exactly what he does. I learned that on Tralfamadore." (9.22.10)
Billy has found a way to make everything that has happened in his life seem okay: faith in Tralfamadore. What else has he tried to assuage the pain? Christianity (as a chaplain's assistant), money (he's making bank as an optometrist), and family (he marries a girl he doesn't like that much because he feels he needs to). But when all else fails, Billy goes for Tralfamadore.