Slaughterhouse Five- Chapter 5

Chapter five of "Slaughterhouse Five" deals with many of the same themes as the rest of the book. One, the question of free will vs a predetermined universe. At one point a prisoner asks a guard "Why me?" and the guard replies "Vy you? Vy anybody?". At another point when Billy is dreaming while on morphine, he questions things happening in his dream and he asks "why?". These moments  encompass this concept of not being able to necessarily choose what happens in one's life. The Tralfamadorians accept this concept most completely. They understand that the world they live in is a predetermined world, "He has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way". Even when the universe is in peril, they still believe they cannot change something even though it hasn't happened yet. Another reoccurring aspect in this chapter is that of time travel. The concept of his time travels is explained through the Tralfamadorians literature, "what we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time". This is something Billy is able to accomplish through his travels. He is not defined by one particular moment in his life because he will quickly shift to another time. Billy characterizes the books as having lots of "ups and downs" which is strikingly similar to his life. He speaks of visiting the Grand Canyon compared to the Carlsbad Canyons and how his father put him in the deep end of the pool as a child compared to taking him to the Grand Canyon. This connects Billy's life to the books he is reading which allows us to better understand how it describes his entire life.