During one of the descriptions of the Tralfamadorians, it is said that these aliens cannot talk. In connection with what the narrator said in the beginning chapter, those who survived the war, or specifically the Dresden fire bombing, could not find words for the things they saw. It can be assumed that the Tralfamadorians are a form of Billy's PTSD coming through to represent that he is unable the directly talk of events he lived through in the war.
"But not words about Dresden came from my mind then-not enough of them to make a book, anyway. And not many words come now, either..." (p. 2)
As the story goes on, and we are told of Billy's alien "encounters" through the voice of an equally silenced narrator, I think that more facts about how the world is viewed by Billy, will emerge by the things taught to him by these voiceless creatures. He has learned the values of time, by not being able to speak of the time taken from him by a war. Will we continue to see this theme of being silenced by war throughout the remainder of the book?
I think that your connection between the tralfamadorians and PTSD is spot on. Normally people do not wish to speak of wars. This does seem to be Billy's unique way of explaining. It seems though that because no one else knows of his case, he is viewed as crazy.
ReplyDeleteI think that your connection between the tralfamadorians and PTSD is spot on. Normally people do not wish to speak of wars. This does seem to be Billy's unique way of explaining. It seems though that because no one else knows of his case, he is viewed as crazy.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you said "It can be assumed that the Tralfamadorians are a form of Billy's PTSD coming through to represent that he is unable the directly talk of events he lived through in the war." It makes sense that he is talking about PTSD because most of the time people who come back from war have PTSD. It puts things into perspective that he made up the aliens and the time travel to help explain how the bombings affected him as an individual. The time travel could be used as a tool to help the readers understand that when one has been in a war, the memories of the war do not come back to the person all at once in one coherent thought/memory. They come back in bits and pieces, fragments.
ReplyDelete