Essay on Coping Mechanisms in Kurt Vonnegut’s...

People react differently to tragedies: some mourn, some speak up, and some avoid the sorrow. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut suggests the danger and inhumanity of turning away from the discomfort by introducing Billy Pilgrim as someone who is badly affected by the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, and the Tralfamadorians as the aliens who provide an easy solution to Billy. It is simpler to avoid something as tragic as death, but Vonnegut stresses the importance of confronting it. Vonnegut, like many artists, expresses his ideas through his creations. The significance of art is not confined to helping and inspiring the general public; the process of creating art also becomes another form of coping mechanism for artists. In†¦show more content†¦One of the greatest impacts caused by disasters is one’s motivation for living. In Slaughterhouse-Five, many characters display twisted minds after experiencing wars. Billy and Rosewater find life meaningless, because they witness too many dead bodies in war; Lazzaro finds the sweetest thing to be revenge. As wars bring distorted senses to people, Vonnegut presents two opposing coping methods in Slaughterhouse-Five: One is the Tralfamadorians’ passive idea and the other is the narrator’s humane notion. The overall concept of the Tralfamadorians is to â€Å"ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones† (Vonnegut 150). They do not look back, not even forward; they focus on the scattering patch of good moments regardless of time. A similar idea is how they have come to regard death: â€Å"in bad condition in that particular moment, and that the person is just fine in plenty of other moments.† The thought – it is more important that a person has lived a brilliant life – is comforting; however, it disregards the possibilities a person has as long as he or she lives. In an interview, Vonnegut points out that he â€Å"resents† the promising ideas, the Utopianism, in science fiction (qtd in Simpson 261). This is disclosed in Breakfast of Champions, when Kilgore Trout indirectlyShow MoreRelatedThe Impact Of Science Fiction in Our Life: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut815 Words   |  4 PagesFiction Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five brilliantly illustrates how being in combat traumatically affects soldiers in time of war. Indeed, the author uses science fiction and the creative use of time travel as a mold to bring about his true feelings towards war, thus making Slaughterhouse-Five a quintessential anti-war book. Vonnegut’s usage of science fiction creates an outlet to the planet of Tralfamadore where Billy is able to escape his mental damage from war. The author, Kurt VonnegutRead MoreKurt Vonnegut s Slaughterhouse Five902 Words   |  4 Pageswould do anything to avoid memories of trauma, including inventing an alternate planet. 2. 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