Slaughterhouse Five-Unstuck Essay, Research Paper

The concept of being “unstuck in time” refers to a person living from one moment in life to another instead of the day-to-day one we live today. The main character of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim, does just that. He travels through the time line of his life experiencing moments of it in no particular order. In a flash, time travel for Billy happens with no warning to where he will turn up next. On the night of his daughter’s wedding, Billy is abducted by extra-terrestrials from the planet Tralfamadore. They enlighten him on the concept of being “unstuck in time.” Their belief is that, “When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the person is in bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments.” p.27 Audiences journeys with Billy vary as they tarry along on through this time traveling tale through Vonnegut’s novel and the movie based on it. They in their own way display the concept of being “unstuck in time.”

One difference between the movie and novel’s structure is the transitional time between moments in Billy’s travels. Moments in Billy’s life change instantaneously, not giving Billy a clue to where he will end up next. In one moment, he is sitting in his home typing a letter to the local newspaper about his experience with the Tralfamadorians, and in the next he is a lost soldier of World War II running around behind German lines aimlessly without a coat or proper shoes. He then became a child being thrown into a pool by his father and afterwards a forty-one year old man visiting his mother in an old people’s home. In the novel, changes in time are made through transitional statements such as, “Billy traveled in time, opened his eyes, found himself staring into the glass eyes of a jade green mechanical owl.” p.56 In the movie there is no such thing and different moments in Billy’s life happen instantaneously. Because scenes are continuous as times change, the movie better displays the author’s attempt to capture in the notion of being “unstuck in time.” On the other hand, the novel does help the audience follow these time changes better by setting it up for the next scene, offering a background of Billy’s experiences before they begin through these transitional statements.

Another difference between the two is the way in which characters are presented. In the novel the audience is introduced to Billy’s captive mate, Montana Whildhack, as she is first placed into the Tralfamadorian zoo. She is place in the cohabitation with Billy while she is unconscious and is filled in by him about her new surroundings. A while after she gains his trust, she is then able to mate with him. In the movie, the audience first sees Montana as she comforts Billy after he returns to her from another of his time travel ordeals. In this scene also written differently later on in the book, the two have a conversation about how Billy feels after a recent return from a moment in the war. The display of characters in the novel adds more color to their personalities than in the movie. There is more insight given to the background of the relationship between Billy and these characters. The movie though does not take the main focus off of Billy by telling us less about the other characters. Giving less information allows the reader not to get lost in the images of other characters who may overpower a scene instead of complimenting Billy in them.

Being “unstuck in time” is a unique concept normally one cannot be subjected to in real life. Through this imaginary tale, we are able to experience something that is unbelievable and intriguing. Both the novel and movie take us on the same adventure, but by traveling different paths. Both these two structures allow one to have a unique insight into the life of Billy Pilgrim and the thoughts of Kurt Vonnegut.

Written by Kelly L. Hicks