Irony has played a big part so far throughout Slaughterhouse Five.
On page 56, Billy Pilgrim time travels from World War 2 to his optometry office in Ilium. His job as an optometrist does not quite suit him because of his beliefs and his perspective of humanity.
Billy's job as an optometrist seems ironic considering the fact that earlier in the book (on page 26) the Tralfamadorians taught Billy that humans see things in a very restricted and limited way. "They pitied Earthlings for being able to see only three [dimensions]"(26). The irony of this is that Billy fixes people's eyesight for a living, however Billy believes that the vision of many people needs to become clearer, not in a literal sense, but in the way that humans see different life events (such as death). The book continues to mention that the way we use our vision is such a "human thing". On page 22, a woman was told not to look back at the destruction of homes, "but she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human." Billy believes that the way humans see certain things is silly because the Tralfamadorians have taught him that "all moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist" (27). So, as Billy fixes people's eyesight, he continues to have another belief as to how human vision should be corrected.
If Billy has another perspective of how to look at life, then why do you think he is an optometrist? Do you think that at some point in the book he will use his job as a platform to convince people how their vision actually needs to be corrected?
I believe that Billy was enrolled in the "Ilium School of Optometry for one semester before being drafted...."(24) This is previous to his abduction and the war. Therefore he had not learned of the new ways to look at life before deciding to be an optometrist. Despite that I also feel that him working in the field of vision is not a coincidence and will have some part later on in the book.
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ReplyDeleteEli - you're looking at time in a human way, not as Billy (and the Tralfamadorians) see time. If all moments have happened, are happening, and will happen, then Billy HAS already been abducted by the Tralfamadorians. The war is ALWAYS happening and HAS always happened.
DeleteIt's kind of a "chicken and the egg" thing - which came first? The short answer (in the context of the story) is that everything came first and nothing came first. Moments simply ARE.
Keep up the good work!! :)
Though Billy can change the way that his patients (other humans) see physically, it doesn't seem possible for him to change his patients vision to be like the Tralfamadorians. Billy has a prayer framed and hanging in his optometrist office, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference." (60) One thing that Billy may not be able to change, is the way that humans who have not been abducted by the Tralfamadorians see time and the world itself.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about the framed prayer that Billy has in his office. I think that the fact that Billy is thinking about "the things I cannot change" and the "courage to change the things I can" shows that he is accepting of the fact that he might not be able to have a huge impact on the way humans see certain things such as time. Also, this quote emphasizes one of the main themes in this story which is that some moments simply are. So, since he believes that some things just happen without any explanation, that might also be why he is encouraging himself to "accept the things I cannot change". Maybe Billy isn't trying to convince humans of how to change the way they see things, maybe his new discovery of time helps him to cope with the events that happened throughout his life. He had a tough life with the war, witnessing many deaths, and the plane crash. So, seeing time in this new way could just be an easier way for Billy to make sense of everything that has happened.
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