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Trope In Slaughterhouse Five

Decent Essays

Similar to Hosseini, Vonnegut in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five begets the Tralfamadorians who act as the Hermit Guru. The Hermit Guru character trope could be described as a character who lives away from society and contains powers/wisdom to bring enlightenment. As stated before the Tralfamadorians fit this description. For example, Vonnegut states, “Earth can't be detected from Tralfamadore, as far as that goes. They’re both very small. They’re very far apart” (Vonnegut 30). As brought about by Vonnegut, the Tralfamadorians live away from society, so far that they do not even live on planet Earth, just as the Hermit Guru character trope. In addition, for the enlightenment trait, Vonnegut grants Tralfamadorians the ability to, “see in four …show more content…

These teachings about time include, “All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist” and how “[Tralfamadorians] can see how permanent all the moments are” (Vonnegut 27). Tralfamadorians, as designed by Vonnegut, explain to Billy a new way to view time and “enlighten” Billy. This enlightenment leads to, “It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever” and how, “when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral”(Vonnegut 27). Billy is being told that nothing matters, that everyone is, “trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why” (Vonnegut …show more content…

Vonnegut explains how Billy is weak by comparing him to an insect. A Tralfamadorian explains to Billy that, "we are... trapped in the amber of this moment" after asking Billy if "[he] ever seen bugs trapped in amber" (Vonnegut 77). The Tralfamadorians are telling Billy that he is as helpless as a bug encased in amber. Billy's outlandish admiration for his captors further proves Billy's weak mindedness. The Tralfamadorians take advantage of Billy as he is so willing to accept their ideas. Because of this, Billy embraces a sadistic ideology where nothing actually matters. For example, Vonnegut grants Billy warrant to state, “Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is ‘So it goes’” (Vonnegut 27). Throughout the story the reader reads Billy say “So it goes” many times and it just means that Billy no longer cares for life or the ones that he loves because he truly believes the “person is just fine in plenty of other moments” (Vonnegut 27). The Tralfamadorians taught him to not care. Vonnegut’s message is to not just be an acolyte because what the higher power could be teaching you could be very harmful to you and to others. Vonnegut uses the powerful Tralfamadorians to contrast the weak Billy and the relationship acts as an example of the negative effects of following

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