Manifestations of Trauma in Slaughterhouse Five: A Psychological Study

Abstract

Slaughterhouse-Five is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut that documents the time travel of its protagonist named Billy Pilgrim along with giving a harrowing account of his encounters during the Second World War. Slaughterhouse Five has been studied mostly as a science fiction novel whereas it can very easily be read as a novel delineating the perplexed mind of a perplexed protagonist. However, so far this facet of the novel has not been explored extensively. Therefore, the aim of this research paper would be to illuminate the complexities of Billy’s intriguing state of mind and to state that the elements of time travelling and encounters with the aliens called the Tralfamadorians are not elements of science fiction but rather the consequence of a troubled veteran experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of gaining first hand experience from the carnage of Dresden. This exploration will be achieved by making a thorough examination of Billy’s time travelling, his emotional numbing, and his encounter with the Tralfamadorians and connecting all these to the known symptoms of PTSD. This would be done in order to lay foundation for future studies and explorations of war soldiers turned authors, in the conviction that literature may one day be of some service as a kind of psychological remedy for home coming soldiers, their kith and kins and for society at large.