Dear Robert Frost,

As I read your poem I was astonished to see the way you looked at life. I don't see any choice in life, all that exists is given by fate. I can't understand where you get those ideas of choosing a path. In my handbook I explain through practical examples that what you are saying isn't true. Starting with The "play writer" and the "actor" in a play (16). Through this metaphor I try to teach others that one must know his place in life. You on the other hand, are telling people exactly the opposite that we all can be fate by choosing with a free will that doesn't exist: at least not for that.

The only thing we can change about our current situation is what we feel and what to some extent how we react to the situation. As I will explain in the following quotation only some very limited things are to be in our control: "Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions in short, whatever is our own doing." (1) You say that people are free to choose their path but the path has been carved by others. Thus it truly isn't up to us which path we choose since it was never our own doing. When you mention the The Road Not Taken as a title to you poem it just says that there is a special road for you which might be true. It might look as if the choice was yours but that road no one else took probably was predestined to be your final choice. The only thing you can really change is how you look at the path you have chosen, making it look different for you but still not changing the undeniable truth that you weren't able to choose it.

It would be against by beliefs in what I have written to allow myself to believe in such a possibility. Although I respect your belief and of those that follow you I do warn you that you are outreaching yourself. Attempting change the unchangeable will only bring self-inflicted suffering to your life. This path you falsely believe to have chosen, if continued to be looked upon with such eyes, will harm you and those that believe in you.

Sincerely,

Epictetus

Identity Not For Sale

As I continued to read through the book I crossed through a special line which reminded me of something we are inclined to forget. In section 24 the value of principles and of identity demonstrates the importance this text gives to these. It proves that we have the possibility of choosing whether we want to trade our essence for material goods. The situation is given but we can still control how we react to it. This free will is a demonstration of our choice in life between what we believe to be right and wrong. The quotation that expressed this thought the best was this: ""Then what place," he says "will I have in the city?" The one you can have by preserving your trustworthiness and self-respect" (section 24)

In our society trading our values and principles can be so tempting in order to acquire material goods. Through lies and giving our believes, the essence of our existence is lost. By this I mean that what we think and the way we act determines who we are and how we will be remembered. Is it really worth it to sell who we are and what we leave in this world to our culture? I don't see this as the right way.

In this same section there is talks about the importance of maintaining ones identity specially when it comes to peer pressure. We see this in the following quotation where we are told about the importance of being firm to influences that can take you out of course: ""Get money," someone says, "so that we may have some." If I can get it while keeping self-respect and trustworthiness and high-mindedness show me the way and I will get it." (section 24) I would be glad to obtain material benefits through diligence but not through action that will weight on my conscience. Doing so would only allow me to live an unhappy life. Thanks to this I began to understand the meaning of the manual.

It is a manual in order to live happily in an ever more corrupt society, where principles and values are given away all the time. Reading this has made me think that even if our society can be technologically advanced it has proved to make man go one step behind on evolution making us loose trust and kill each other. Our culture has replaced many important values that are essential to the substance of the community life that is necessary for the maintaining of the peace in society. If we begin to sacrifice these values no matter how much technology we posses horrible suffering will continue to plague this our world. Wars are just an example of what could happen. The development of such methods to slowly pressure people to leave their morals will unquestionably lead us to bad lives and an even worse world to live in.

The Banquet Of Life

Reading through the sections 10 to 20 on the Epictetus' the Handbook section 15 captured me. This is a truth that when said like that makes a lot of sense. Although I never thought of it like this, the statement is undeniable. It is explained in the text that one must always "behave as in a banquet" (17) since there is a feast laid before us in life where everything is served and it is a matter of passing it around the table. This is applicable to today's world. Today, there is the possibility of abundance for everybody. We have the choice of giving and receiving a plethora of everything we need yet we choose not to. Sometimes we choose not to pass the food around and with our eager selfish hands we give all, to few. Due to this many have to suffer in this world.

There is however hope for those who "do not take them but despise them, then you will not only share a banquet with the gods but also be a ruler along with them" (17). Through close reading I was able to extrapolate this: those who do not wish to take all the earthly possessions that are in the banquet will be free and thus become like gods. This is a statement to give hope to those who have given up on taking out of the banquet and now despise its contents, despise life and all its earthly attachments. The only way I can interpret these as positive things is that earthly attachments keep the soul from achieving perfection. Once the soul is perfected it will be like one of the gods. Although not much hope, since we all want our share of the "food", it shows us that there will be at least some compensation.

This banquet metaphor is something I liked a lot. It showed that there are something we can't change (like the food) and other that we can (like our attitude towards the food). This not only enforces the first teachings but it also shows the reality of life. A great amount of the suffering that we go through in our lives is caused by our attitudes and decisions. This book seems give a way to avoid our decisions and attitudes from interfering with our way to happiness. It is a manual to live and exploit to its fullest the Banquet of life.

Our Boundaries

In our lives we go through great joy and sadness but as I began reading Epictetus' the Handbook I was introduced to a new way of viewing the pain that we go through our lives. In the KJV the story of Job said that bad things happen to good people but here I was told a completely different opinion. We are the culprits of our own suffering because we judge. The moment we judge and label something to us, it will become what that label says. The best example is the one presented in the book: "For example, death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates), but instead the judgment about death that is dreadful…" (13). We judge death to be a horrible thing because it is unknown to us. If you try to think of death in an objective way (which is hard since I know I will die one day), it isn't bad but good and necessary. If there should be balance in the world everyone must die otherwise the consequences would be catastrophic. It might be good when time comes but it isn't something one should desire for another since we all have our turn to live. Anyhow, in the Bible Job was helpless which shows a great ideological difference.

In the Bible Job was helpless and all he could do is endure and try to overcome all the hardships that came to him. He didn't blame it on others (God) or himself. This proves he was an "educated person" (13). Although to some extent Job might have followed what is said in this book he didn't seem to do much to improve his situation. All he received good or bad was given by God and he just cultivated it. He knew the difference between what could or not be changed yet he reacted in a passive way to what happened. All he did was pray instead of taking action and reducing his losses. That is where the ideological difference lies. According to the Handbook we should desire only that which is given to us but, Job didn't show much desire for anything. Even if better times were in his path it wasn't something he had wanted from the beginning of his unfortunate events. Job might have not known that if he continued to endure all that pain he would be able to live his life happily.

I found it interesting how in the Bible we are told from the start to wait for God to give us things and never to desire anything since he will provide. Here we have a more aggressive approach at life in which we must desire but only that which is in our way. Although, the future and what lies in front of us is a mystery to all that which we truly believe to be in our way is something we can desire and fight to obtain. If we were to wait for God to provide many things that have occurred would be impossible or, could it be possible that God's way of providing is through our own work? All I can deduce is that we must not judge things that we believe to never cross path with us, if we do they never will since we would have chosen not to attempt following them. If we judge things that are to come, then it is likely that such events will develop as expected, this might not always be, a good thing.

War Against Nature

In the final chapter of the book, we are given a final message from the Tralfamadorians: " 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" (74 PDF). On the same chapter this statement is proved wrong. All the people that were killed in Dresden did they improve humanity through their death? Most of their corpses were burned and nothing was left to make their existence justified by that Darwinian principle.

The people that died at Dresden didn't die because of natural selection. They didn't have a chance to resist the bombs. Natural selection allows some to live through, the strongest. Dresden is destruction alone, with out a meaning other than death. Anyhow the Darwinian principle as adopted by the Tralfmadorians dehumanizes us even if it is the way things are meant to be for humans.

The "corpse mine"(74 PDF) has great importance in proving this point. Bodies were eventually burned and left there. They would not contribute to the evolution of humanity, they would only remain there as proof of the horror we have created. This belief contradicts the Tralfamadorian believe and shows as a great contrast on the story. However these contrasts in the book clearly show something other than irony.

These differences in the book between what should happen and the reality demonstrate the evil in war. This accentuates the book's anti-war theme. Through irony and sarcasm this books tells us a point of view of the war. It teaches us many important lessons and when I ended reading the book I wasn't sure what to take seriously and what as irony. The only thing that I was certain about was that war is a horrible thing that isn't natural and it will only harm humanity. This is certainly the message Vonnegut wanted to instill in us, how war goes against everything evolution has worked so hard to create.

Thesis Statement

In Slaughter House V there are constant hints that show the authors point of view on Billy having free will.

Will For Billy

Will is a theme that remains undecided yet with a great importance in chapter 8. In previous chapters we see the Tralfamadorian’s point of view on will. When the German decided to attack the American for something he said also showed the dangers of not accepting responsibility for our own actions. Blaming destiny for everything we do can have gigantic consequences in what we do. Here, we see more of Billy´s and Montana´s life in Tralfamadore. Although they were happy living as happy as in earth they remain without freedom. Since the aliens gave Billy and his companion the closest environment to earth we can interpret this as Earth and the lifestyle Billy had as prison. He followed a similar routine to that on earth. Billy´s attitude towards his imprisonment supports the idea that he was already used to this. There is a particular quotation that shows the lack of freedom in Tralfamadore, maybe not directly for Billy but it still applies to humanity: “She meant that their keepers were making the electric clocks in the dome go fast, then slow, then fast again., and watching the little Earthling family through peepholes. There was a silver chain around Montana Wildhack's neck.” (74)

In this quotation we see the illusion of time as a way of entrapment. It supports the idea of Tralfamadorians that humans are not able to see the fourth dimension and because of this are trapped in it. The silver chain around Montana’s neck is important because it can be interpreted as the chains that all humans have around them. Whether it is society or time, it might have some good things that make it look silver but they will remain chains. The locket with the prayer is very interesting since it suggests that the answer to this isn't absolute. Through this prayer we see that it is a matter of the situation. If the situation allows it a person might be given a choice. When we talk about Billy´s kidnap by the Tralfamadorians it shows a situation in which there is no free will. It would be reasonable to conclude that the Tralfamadorians lack the wisdom to see the difference and assume all is predestined.

The Unthinkable Present

During World War II there had been an alliance with Russia and the United States to attack the Nazis. In the end due to pressure and internal conflict the Russians had been forced to retire from the war in peaceful terms with Germany. Even then after all the souls that had been lost by the Russians to maintain the front, a war between the U.S and Russia was improbable. We see here the terms in which the U.S and Russia were during the war: "He spoke of the brotherhood between the American and the Russian people, and how those two nations were going to crush the disease of Nazism, which wanted to infect the whole world." (p.58)Although this alliance had been powerful and essential for the allied victory, it was investable for another type of war to develop the cold war.

At that moment it was unclear whether the powerful alliance between Russia and the allies was going to last. Then, all that matter was that this alliance was as decisive for the moment. The withdrawal of Russia from the war brought a new tone about the relation between the two countries that no one had expected. "'Once the Russians are defeated,' he went on, you will be repatriated through Switzerland.' There was no response. 'You're going to have to fight the Communists sooner or later,' said Campbell. "Why not get it over with now?'" (p.58) Americans showed no interested in doing such thing. They were tired and men devoid of hope and will to fight for their country. They had been captured by the enemy and their moral had been crushed. The war that followed the World War II was unthinkable to them at the moment yet to those that had to live the moments of the Cold War would have seen it coming from the history books. Sadly, it is very hard to stop something which might be obvious once it happens but before there is little chance of detecting it.

The present we live in today is unthinkable from the perspective of those who lived a couple hundred years before or even those who lived only decades before. Maybe that's a message the author want to get through. That no matter how hard you try to predict the future from the past it is almost impossible since the possibilities are too great. This supports the point the eternity of the moments in time. An event in the future or in the past will always happen the same way. Even if we know what will happen, we can't understand how it will happen because we haven't lived the necessary experiences to comprehend the chain of events that lead to that moment. Due to our lack of comprehension the vent will happen, immune to our attempts at changing it. Billy probably understands that he can´t change the future or the past mainly because of this. He sees the moments but no what lead to them and therefore he remains trapped in his own magnificent ability.

Hunger Is The Best Spice

When need comes we will do all in our power to satisfy it. If we hunger we will eat anything without caring for the taste. In Chapter 7 we see this in a more subtle way. During the war, when trapped in Dresden as workers in a syrup factory, the American soldiers had two choices: they could eat the syrup meant for pregnant women or not eat it and pass through hunger themselves. Most workers at the factory ignored the people who needed this syrup and ate it without control. American soldiers were hungry and this food was perfect for them even if "the syrup was for pregnant women"(p.57) and that with it they might have complications during their pregnancy.

In such terrible conditions the soldiers were faced with a moral decision which they barely thought about. They would rather feed themselves that help other who would really need it. We see here Billy eating syrup knowingly of for whom it was meant for, yet he was consumed by the pleasure given to him by his body: "He thrust it into his mouth. A moment went by, and then every cell in Billy's body shook him with ravenous gratitude and applause." (p.57) They had two reasons for eating the syrup without much visible remorse. They didn't know the people and didn't care about them. Those were enemy pregnant women and the children they would have would be soldiers in a future war. If anything they were doing the future generations a favor by not allowing those unborn children to fill the ranks of an army for a future war. Since they didn't know the person they were taken the food from they had no bond with them and therefore would be guiltless of causing any damage.

There is a third reason which is the animal inside all of us. That part which we ignore when times are good and we need very little. When there is scarcity of anything we begin to only care about ourselves, forgetting about all the things our society tells us are important like caring for future generations. That is probably a program embedded deep down our subconscious which appears for us when we need it. That animalistic part is what we desperately try to eliminate since we are constantly told that it is a bad thing but that is what keeps us alive. If it weren´t for that program which is hated so much, humanity wouldn´t be here as we know it. After this chapter I began to reconsider if the values and morals we are constantly exposed to in our society were good. Could it be that we are trying to build our culture on an utopist thought that this world will never tolerate? Should we fight against what our body says to be good? Could our hunger for something distort our vision of reality?

In Search For Irony In Revenge

I remember from class that a great amount of this book is ironical. Some of it can't be taken seriously because it would make the book loose its true meaning. Starting with the story about who was supposedly writing this book and why. In the first chapter the author of this book claims that he wrote a war book and a funny book. This is a combination of both since it is taking us to the bombing of Dresden but from a creative point of view, a soldier that can travel in time. Of all the ironical statements that are in the book one was worth discussing. It wasn't as obvious as "Everybody gets a little something from war" (p.40) but it has a meaning which took me some time to understand completely. This is the statement: 'Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is-' said Lazzaro, 'it's revenge.' (p.49)

Without the context of the book this statement might be taken literally since revenge can have its bright side. When this is said Lazzaro is talking to Billy Pilgrim. Lazzaro has sworn to kill Billy in revenge for the death of Roland Weary. The Ironical part here is soon after this conversation, Billy is transported to the future and experiences the moments previous to his death (which was triggered by Lazzaro who killed him in order to fulfill his promise). This is an example of one of the messages the author wants to make sure we get from this book. Revenge might be good especially for he who is giving it to others, but it can't be "the sweetest thing in life" because it ultimately will bring death and suffering.

Lazzaro was a person who lived for revenge and tried to give it to give to as many people as he could, for any reason he found fit. I doubt Billy was truly involved in Roland Weary's death because he was in a different car and because Billy was able to extend Roland's life a little. If Billy would have continued with the other two "musketeers" all of them would have been killed by the Germans. Lazzaro is person who is blinded by hate and goes after Billy many years later when he is finally an important person capable of inspiring millions and change the way people looked at things. This is why revenge will never bring justice. If there is no justice there is no peace and without peace there is war. War is death and because of this revenge can only be the most horrible thing in life.

Op-ed: Utopian Nightmare

Those who belive in the possibility of a Utopia are those whom I can't stand. That belief is something that is completly irrelevant, a theory that doesn't apply to our reality. I can't stand people who have belief in this incredibly unlikely possibility. They are blinded by the nice and shiny things our society throws at us in order to distract us from our reality. I see them as thos who are lost looking for a golden city that we should be able to see right now if it were possible.

This kind of belief in such an unreachable ideal as this can be compared with Ishmael. He said that most of the time we are going down in a freefall with out noticing until we actually crash. Thinking that humans are capable of achiving the standards our society puts on to us is very naive. We are slightly above animals in some skills but most of our instincts and tendencies remain the same. This makes it imposible for a utopia as our society describes it to occur.

The summer reading books are very relevant in this theme. They show the desperation we are cough in and desperately trying to escape by ignoring it. Thus, thes books presented to us with a vision of our present and the possibilities that are more likely to happen in the future. . In Clockwork Orange for example, we see how people lost their will to choose evil. When people's lives are on the line using this system is the only true way of of unsuring that no other man would hurt them. It was in the utopian ideas of freedom that the oposing party used, through which this very effective method of saving lifes was eliminated. So in the is this utopic idea of freedom worth it?

During our lives we have several factors that limit the choices we have. These choices include choosing the college you want to attend or simply buying a chocolate. To do such actions you need certian requirements wether its funds or merits. Those who don't meet the requirements have their freedoms reduced. We see that society has transformed the ability to choose into a product we need to buy. If we had the posibility to stop those who take other freedom by taking their freedom to choose evil is that a sin? To those who have utopian ideals for humanity every should choose good of their own will but at the cost of so many lives is such a thing really possible? It isn't and to wait for it to happen by giving those who have done so many crimes a second chance is a position that will harm all. People can't be expected to do good on their own.

A utopia is a place in which everything is perfect and people live in peace because they choose to. The last four words of this definition of Utopia are the great flaw that bothers me. The greatest error of our current system and others like comunism is that people will continue to work and be good with out a watchful eye on them. This is a lie. Even if there is a majority of the public that is good, from either fear of the law or because they wish to be righteous, that won't stop those willing to do harm. This minority that harms others can affect the great majority willing to do good. That great majority of good doers can change unespectedly if people in the society are faced with discomfort or death. This is because people will usually turn to crime and inmoral actions when it is necesary. Those who have the utopian ideals of our society can't accept that there is evil in all of us waiting to be awakened.

Those who choose to continue believing in those distracting baits our culture lays in front of us fail to see the harsh truth of the world. It isn't wether people are born or are made evil but that we can all turn to it if the condition makes it necesary. This inability to see the darker spots in humanity is what keeps us from evolving into a better society. Until we accept that there is evil in all of us and continue believing in the possibility of a utopia where people are all good society will remain falling until we crash.

"On Many" Comment

This Blog talked about the right register to use many on. (I like to see that what I learn in class is on other places other than works written by the class or for the class) The reference to the King James Bible was very interesting since a text that was written so long ago is still used today as a guideline for English. This proved to me even further the importance of all the text we read in class. Although some might not be as emblematic as the K.J.B. they teach us ho to write.

I really disliked the examples given at the beginning of the blog because although to some extent one can extrapolate from the sentence what kind of context and audience it has, it is still important to give a context because I felt like some of those simple phrases might have been used in a more formal register like "I have seen many hybrid cars in Wellington."

In the end I completely agree with the conclusion that it is a question of style rather than one of grammatical error.

Who Made Who?

As I was reading chapter five I came across this particular quote which is very interesting to analyze. It is a completely new perspective on the Gospel that even while studying las year I failed to see. "The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels. So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was. And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down." (p.39)

This view of life is somewhat ironical and from a very detached point since Tralfamadorians and Billy were able to travel or see the fourth dimension freely death was no longer something to fear. The eternity of those moments was all that mattered so people were eternal and thus they don't require the salvation that is given by our religion. This reminded me of an episode in Cowboy Bebop which dealt with religion and God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acW-axefwaM

In this video we see the most relevant point of the episode which says that people created God. According to it we did this to find hope, a shred of light in such a hostile environment we have created for ourselves. This light is death, the moment we are freed from this world. If we were good during our lives then we should go to heaven and enjoy eternal peace.

Certain patterns of or society are seen in the Bible that suggest some of the corruption of our society stained the Bible to some extent. We see these continue to repeat themselves on our society. The two who died in such a painful way beside Jesus were a side story and not given much importance. Jesus on the other hand, was the center of attention. Similarly when a king dies the entire kingdom he rules mourns it but when a peasant father to many dies it is barely noticed.

All death should be something that makes us sad yet it rarely happens when it is people who don't have connections. This sort of corruption from our society that has become part of the image of God is usable as proof that we were the ones that created God. We tried to make him and what he did perfect from our standards but some of our society fused with that Utopian ideal and caused this.

Even if we started to think like creationists, and decided God made us all then what would be the divine logic behind making a situation that can be interpreted in such a way? Only those who wrote the Gospels could be able to explain such a situation. If God truly were as righteous as the Bible continually says then why did he show such anger when his son was killed if all Jesus taught about was forgiveness? Only God know.

Like Bugs In Amber

As I read through chapter four I was shocked at the way Tralfamadorians look at life. Not because it isn't very fun having no choice over one's decisions but because it might be true. It is possible that the author wants to think if free will really exists.

The part in which we are first introduced to the concept of having not free will is here: " Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?' 'Yes.' Billy in fact, had a paperweight in his office which was a blob of polished amber with three ladybugs embedded in it. 'Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.'" (p.28)

Billy has probably realized that he has no free will before the Tralfamadorians captured him because he had traveled through time and probably has already realized that he can't change anything.

Before the aliens coming for Billy it there could have been discrepancies over if Billy really had free will he just didn't remember change anything because he had always remembered it that way. After their visit they state that in all the habitable planets with life that they know, in none is there "talk of free will"(p.31)

This brings up the question if we have free will. Is it possible that we are unable to change the events that will happen? There is no way of knowing since we can't look into the future like Tralfamadorians. This illusion of free will is instilled in to our subconscious by media, if we weren't given this feeling of certainty then our society might collapse. People would loose their their desire to continue working or attempting to better themselves. Everything would suddenly stop and the most horrible thing about having everything predestined is that if such an event were to happen it would be predestined.

It could be associated to the matrix because in the end Neo was the chosen one from the beginning of the story and although the illusion of choice was given to him there might have never been any. It could be plausible that our destination is predestined in history, heaven or hell but the path we choose to take there is up to us.

The Time Prison

As I read through the chapter I realized that even with Billy's amazing powers to move through his life, he always ended up back in the war. He always goes back there to continue telling the story of what he lived in it and when he became unstuck in time. Even if Billy can´t consciously use his time travel abilities maybe some part in him triggers them like extreme horror or disgust. When he is in the war he sees the rabbi that "had been shot through the hand. " (p.20)

This is a scene most people would attempt avoiding or forgetting. Billy reacted in a different way. Even if it isn't said explicitly in the book it is very likely Billy might have wanted to go to a place of peace, where he could feel home. Incredibly the next scene provides just that. We see Billy in the most common and peaceful places there are, an optometrist office. "Billy traveled in time, opened his eyes, found himself staring into the glass eyes of a jade green mechanical owl. The owl was hanging upside down from a rod of stainless steel. The owl was Billy's optometer in his office in Ilium." (p.20)

I doubt that it is a coincidence for such a gruesome scene would be followed by such a peaceful one. We see this exact same pattern in the end of the chapter. Billy trapped with all the other american soldiers living in such horrible conditions and he being in such a particularly disgusting situation followed by his tramalfadorian kidnap. I haven't read beyond this point yet but I guess it wasn't such a horrible moment. After all they were peaceful beings that were incredibly more advanced than humanity.". 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."(p.26)

It is true that we might not have Billy's gift of being able to escape from his living nightmares by have a lucky strike and leaving those horrible moments instantly but we do have similar defensive mechanism similar to those. If an event is too traumatic we simply ignore it and live on with our lives. I think that Billy is showing us a part of human nature. He is showing us by example that it is the nature of humanity to avoid the horrible truths. People would rather live in a cloud where everything is perfect than in the real world for the simple reason that it is too hard to accept it and understand our reality completely with out being mentally harmed. Could it be that our society has so many horrible truths that we live our lives ignoring them with leaving all those suffering them to live in pain? The example of these horrors shown here is war but there are many others we are unconscious of which might be even worse than war. Maybe because of this Billy tries to escape that moment desperately even if he isn't completely knowing of these attempts he sometimes is successful and escapes for a moment but inevitably returns. He does this because he has live what happened at that point in the war. Even if the ours on that train are eternal he will be trapped in there until the time for him there has passed. That is why that particularly horrible moment in war was like a time prison for Billy one that not even with his time traveling powers he could escape.

Pity For The Blind That See It All

In chapter two of the book we see the beginning of the narrative of the book our main character in the first chapter is talking about. Probably not the one about the bombing but maybe about other more important things to him. (Since he found enough things to say to make this book he probably thought it was more important) This leads us to our first encounter with Trafalgarians. These are more advance beings from another planet very far away from earth. The most important thing about them was that "they could see in four dimensions. They pitied Earthlings
for being able to see only three." (p.9)

The fourth dimension is time. They repeatedly say that these aliens could travel in time and see what was going on on different moments. Although this might look like freedom it is possible that the deeper meaning to this is that they are trapped. They are trapped in places we know very well which are the past and the future. We can see through our memories what has happened and through our imagination and estimates what will happen. It might not be in the literal way though which Trafalgarians are able to travel but it works in a very similar kind of way. In then end it is very possible that these aliens might be able to move through time but that doesn't let them stay in the present. Since they are able to travel so easily through time then why would they choose to be in a sad and painful present when they could be happy in a perfect past or future? It is very possible that that is what they are doing already although, that is just a human's point of view. It is possible that they are so advanced that even with the option of living in the past they continue to choose the future.

This made me think of another detail to support my idea of humans being able to travel through time with similar results to those of Trafalgarians. "And so on. Billy says that he first came unstuck in time in 1944, long before his trip to Tralfamadore. The Tralfamadorians didn't have anything to do with his coming unstuck They were simply able to give him insights into what was really going on." (p.11)

Billy can probably be seen as a part of humanity, as something that everyone has. It is very possible that all of us have become unstuck in time in the sense that we can all remember and imagine. Although it has some limitations and it isn't the exact way the book describes time travel the results are similar. The difference between Billy and every other human around is that we don´t have Trafalgarians to explain to us how this ability of time travel is and how we are supposed to use it.

Finally, we see that even with all of this time travel life isn't about getting to something: it isn't about the beginning or the end. According to the book life is about the journey we go through as we see in this quote: "He has seen his birth and death many times, he says, and pays random visits to all the events in between."

Billy has no control over when he will appear in time and because of this it has to be more probably to fall into a point during his life that isn't his birth or his death. From this fact I infer that what he is being shown is the journey of his life not really as much how it begun or ended. Because that is what is being shown to him most of the time I believe that it is the most important part of life at least for this book. In the end I have gotten the message that being in the past or future can be fine for a while but in the end it is the journey, and what you did in it, that really matters. In the end, we are blinded from the truly important things because our ability to see the past and future so clearly.

A Life Of Boredom And Banality

In the first Chapter of the book we see the introduction of the main character. He is a man trapped in the banality of life after war. "My name is Yon Yonson, I work in Wisconsin, I work in a lumbermill there. The people I meet when I walk down the street, They say, 'What's your name? And I say, 'My name is Yon Yonson, I work in Wisconsin..." (p.1)

For him his life has become a repetitive infinite cycle that is expressed in this poem. Although he is trapped he fights desperately to counter it by trying to relive memories of a past full of action. We see his constant attempts at escaping his banal reality through his constants calls to war friend which whom he wants to remember with the excuse to write his book: "I have this, disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone. I get drunk, and I drive my wife away with a breath like mustard gas and roses. And then, speaking gravely and elegantly into the telephone, I ask the telephone operators to connect me with this friend or that one, from whom I have not heard in years." (p.2)

Even if it's not clearly stated in the book I have come to believe that he isn't interested on actually writing it since he has been going around asking people about it for apparently a very long time without actually seeing any results. We can even see his attitude toward the book he is supposedly writing when he says that there really isn't enough material to write about.

There is another way of looking at this piece from a different point of view. Instead of being an escape from banality it is possible that he was trying to do the same as Gilgamesh. In a desperate attempt of leaving something in this world to be remembered by he tries desperately about a book of the only thing that he really feels is worth writing about which was his experience in the war on that particular bombing. The tone in which he writes about his experiences makes it look like there isn't much interesting happening in his life other than trying to write his book and meeting his old war buddies. This desperation to attempt leaving something behind is an affliction that affects us all and it is a desire we all have sadly not everyone is able to do so. Maybe his inability to find enough material and memories to write his book is a way to represent his failure at living a lasting remnant of him.

Another way in which we can see the banality and sad life of our main character is his wife. He met and married her but he narrated this whole part without emotion. Almost as if there hadn't been love at all. This lack of passion, of purpose makes me feel like if there had been love between the couple it was now dead. We see this example of narration here: "Then we were sent home, and I married a pretty girl who was covered with baby fat, too. And we had babies." (p. 3)

This lack of spirit show to me that he has lost meaning in life and ahs lost interest in family. I would even dare to say that the only reason he is still with his wife is because he has nowhere to go, and no reason separate. Because of this he has decided to take the easy way and do nothing. This far in the book he looks like a living dead. This might change farther on when he is able to leave his mark after death or maybe he will have an epiphany.

I can speculate that the cause of his loss of purpose and passion is derived from the war. We can see this when he sees the man squashed in the elevator. A normally gruesome and horrible event the only comment he had was, "'I've seen lots worse than that in the war.'" (p.3)

The fact that he mentioned the candy bar before he said this was probably a hint to the fact that he had no interest in what had happened he found it boring and common. In the end this shows the damage war causes on the human mind. Although he was apparently a normal person but until very recently (considering he was able to get married) sometimes there is long term damage as well. This long term damage is something that normally can't be seen immediately but these are wounds that normally never heal. Hopefully he will be able to escape from his cage of boredom and banality in the next chapters of the book.