#jacksinanian

Vonnegut illuminates the tragic disbelief of human life into sharp relief in his description of Billy’s happiest moment. The day after the German surrender, Billy dozes blissfully in the sun amid Dresden’s ruins, but he is lying in a tomb on wheels. The coffin-shaped wagon points to a symbolic death suffered even by the survivors of war. It is the death of meaningful existence, the death of innocence for all the “babies” who carry out the newest massacre of war. Billy has not yet grasped the emptiness of victory. Yet when two Germans point out the miserable state of the horses hitched to Billy’s coffin, he cannot avoid the fact that his victory also contains his own defeat. The happiest moment in Billy’s life ends in tears for the plight of two stunned beasts carrying burden. The bird asks a question, “Poo-tee-weet?” to which there can be no reply. As the narrator warns in the first chapter, there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. The novel’s ending suggests that bird-talk makes as much sense as anybody discussing war. Yet, like the bird, Vonnegut has persisted in filling the silence left after the massacre. Even if words and stories are meaningless, the fact that they have managed to survive at all in the aftermath of a war that saw the mass incineration of books as well as of bodies is quite a feat. Moreover, Vonnegut has succeeded in creating a thing of beauty out of of senselessness and anguish.

Vonnegut illuminates the tragic disbelief of human life into sharp relief in his description of Billy’s happiest moment. The day after the German surrender, Billy dozes blissfully in the sun amid Dresden’s ruins, but he is lying in a tomb on wheels. The coffin-shaped wagon points to a symbolic death suffered even by the survivors of war. It is the death of meaningful existence, the death of innocence for all the “babies” who carry out the newest massacre of war. Billy has not yet grasped the emptiness of victory. Yet when two Germans point out the miserable state of the horses hitched to Billy’s coffin, he cannot avoid the fact that his victory also contains his own defeat. The happiest moment in Billy’s life ends in tears for the plight of two stunned beasts carrying burden. The bird asks a question, “Poo-tee-weet?” to which there can be no reply. As the narrator warns in the first chapter, there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. The novel’s ending suggests that bird-talk makes as much sense as anybody discussing war. Yet, like the bird, Vonnegut has persisted in filling the silence left after the massacre. Even if words and stories are meaningless, the fact that they have managed to survive at all in the aftermath of a war that saw the mass incineration of books as well as of bodies is quite a feat. Moreover, Vonnegut has succeeded in creating a thing of beauty out of of senselessness and anguish.

Billy’s discovery of two mysterious lumps inside the lining of his overcoat can be better understood in relation to the biblical story of Lot’s wife mentioned in Chapter 1, when Vonnegut opens the Gideon Bible and reads the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Although the firebombing of Dresden can be seen as a modern tale of fire and brimstone—ultimate destruction on the ground wrought by a faraway unseen force—the part of the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah that interests Vonnegut most is the story of Lot’s wife, who looks back at the destruction even though she is told not to and is turned into a pillar of salt as punishment. Vonnegut praises her for knowing her fate and looking back anyway. The tale provides a counterpoint to Billy, who is content and grateful for the existence of the lumps and feels an almost inhuman lack of curiosity and temptation to find out more, to see them with his own eyes. The lumps seem to radiate a living force, but as long as Billy leaves them undisturbed, he lets part of his humanity lie dormant. The story creates a polarity between Billy and Lot’s wife, with Billy being the disillusioned man who escapes to his delusions and Lot’s wife the determined woman who stares her own destruction in the face. For Vonnegut, the war functions in the same way that the wantonness of Sodom and Gomorrah does—it is a force that condemns those it touches to one of two fates. On one side, Lot’s wife knows that looking back at the city will immobilize her, yet she is determined to take her last glance; on the other side, Billy accepts that he must avoid being curious about the war, since its effects would immobilize him, and instead must go through life with the delusion that there is no need to worry, since whatever will be already is.

Billy’s discovery of two mysterious lumps inside the lining of his overcoat can be better understood in relation to the biblical story of Lot’s wife mentioned in Chapter 1, when Vonnegut opens the Gideon Bible and reads the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Although the firebombing of Dresden can be seen as a modern tale of fire and brimstone—ultimate destruction on the ground wrought by a faraway unseen force—the part of the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah that interests Vonnegut most is the story of Lot’s wife, who looks back at the destruction even though she is told not to and is turned into a pillar of salt as punishment. Vonnegut praises her for knowing her fate and looking back anyway. The tale provides a counterpoint to Billy, who is content and grateful for the existence of the lumps and feels an almost inhuman lack of curiosity and temptation to find out more, to see them with his own eyes. The lumps seem to radiate a living force, but as long as Billy leaves them undisturbed, he lets part of his humanity lie dormant. The story creates a polarity between Billy and Lot’s wife, with Billy being the disillusioned man who escapes to his delusions and Lot’s wife the determined woman who stares her own destruction in the face. For Vonnegut, the war functions in the same way that the wantonness of Sodom and Gomorrah does—it is a force that condemns those it touches to one of two fates. On one side, Lot’s wife knows that looking back at the city will immobilize her, yet she is determined to take her last glance; on the other side, Billy accepts that he must avoid being curious about the war, since its effects would immobilize him, and instead must go through life with the delusion that there is no need to worry, since whatever will be already is.

Throughout the novel, the question of whether Connie has been time traveling to the future or whether she is simply going crazy from the drugs being fed to her at the asylum has been a persisting point of interest. The suspicion around her time travel has been a driving force behind my deep interest in Connie’s state of mind. Consequently, the long wait to the answer behind the question arrives in chapter 11. Finally! In Chapter 11, we see a completely new dynamic to Connie. Her visit to the future in the chapter encounters her and Luciente’s discussion regarding what she should do with her situation in the asylum. Luciente advises Connie and tells her that she can teach her how to feign unconscientiousness to fool the doctors. After some time, Connie somehow learns to knock herself out. Sybil and Connie stage a fight. Sybil hits Connie and Connie uses her powers to knock herself out resulting in chaos from the medical staff at the asylum. They tranquilize Sybil and wheel Connie down for an x-ray. As soon as Connie is left alone for a minute she gets up. Therefore, if she is really crazy and isn’t time traveling, how does she manage to complete this plan of hers and manage to run away from the asylum? This is the moment when it most seems like Connie is time traveling. Finally I can feel at rest with the novel describing the events as time travel.

The first 6 chapters of the novel depicted a strict contrast from Connie’s version of the 1970’s and the utopian future. Society in the 1970’s for Connie is dark, gloomy and hopeless while society in the future through the perspective of Luciente is bright, hopeful and seemingly perfect. However, as we come across chapters 7 and 8, the future is seen as heavily flawed. The imperfections are countable, but are major factors. Two that caught my eye were the discussion meetings and the fact that there is no education system. I think the basic question that can be risen from the following ideas in the future is can society function without rules? The reason that there are meetings in the future is to negotiate the structure or handling of a problem that needs to be discussed. First, if utopian society was really perfect that meetings would not exist. Second, if there were structured rules in society then the problem might not have even been an issue. Third, it is seemingly impossible for every negotiation of an issue to work because people are all different especially in the future. Therefore, the negotiations have flaws in and by themselves. The issue I have with there being no education system is I find it extremely difficult for people in the future to be able to progress. If children are learning everything from their parents then how can progress be made? If the same reoccurring ideas are being raised then new concepts cannot be created. Overall, I have many social, and intellectual issues with this novel as the future is seemingly getting more and more intolerable. While, there may be extreme amounts of freedom in utopian society, structure seems to be lost in all the freedom. I think that morality and ethics are concerning in the utopian future because how can a society function without a sense of right or wrong?

To be honest the novel is extremely weird to me. There are too many different characters with so many different plot twists. Connie’s life circumstances are extremely depressing. Male figures in the novel are domineering and violent. Other female figures are submissive and experience traumatic events. Also, characters like Luciente who appear from the future cause me to take a pause and wonder… Why? And the witch… Sybil and the cat? What is going on with chapter 2 happening before chapter 1? I cannot understand all of these concepts so early in the novel, but I can definitely see some big picture ideas. Already four chapters into the novel and there are numerous themes being displayed. The novel’s strange time-travel story takes Connie through a roller-coaster ride that examines the topics of women’s identity and family structure. An example of the misconception of women’s identity can be seen when Connie finds out that Luciente is actually a woman. “Luciente spoke, she moved with the air of brisk unselfconscious authority Connie associated with men.” (Piercy chapter 3, 67). Connie at first mistakes Luciente for a man, not because Luciente looks like a man, but because she acts like one—acting like a man here meaning that she isn't self-conscious and seems sure of herself. Luciente isn't beaten down enough for Connie to recognize her as a woman. Overall this exemplifies the lack of self-confidence that Connie is used to seeing in women. She assumes that Luciente is a man because of her assurance in herself.

Another interesting thought regarding the changes of characters throughout the novel is how Butler makes sure that all of the characters in the novel are multi-dimensional and complex. Rather than creating white characters that are portraits in evil and black characters that are paragons of virtue, a trap some novels and films about the era of slavery fall into, Butler shows the complicated humanity of all of her fictional creations. Alice, for example, is a martyr to slavery who struggles nobly in impossible circumstances. At the same time, though, she is a jealous woman who can be mean-spirited and even vicious. Rufus is a violent, spoiled tyrant. At the same time, though, he genuinely loves the women in his life.