Monday, April 23, 2012

Slaughterhouse Five: 2

"All time is all time.  It does not change.  It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations.  It simply is.  Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber." (86)

This quote contains what I believe to be one of the themes of the novel.  At this point, I believe that each of the three different settings (war, Tralfamadore, and Billy's hometown) have their own unique themes.  This theme was a very direct presentation.  Usually I find myself searching for themes, but this one just jumped out at me.  I think that this is effective, especially that it was revealed so early in the novel because now I can have it in mind during future trips to Tralfamadore.  I think that this is theme means that humans need to be more observant of the current moment rather than constantly looking toward the future or for a deeper meaning.  Sometimes we look too much into things and forget to take into consideration that sometimes things just are.  I think that especially in times of war we look forward to the end and miss a great deal of what happens now.  I think that we just need to let life happen and accept that we are bugs in amber and cannot control everything.

1 comment:

  1. Me gusta this blog entry. I like the theme, and I don't know how I read over it. I probably was just looking forward to the end of the novel instead of enjoying it piece by piece. That's something I learned to do with hiking while on SFS. Running through the hikes makes them much less enjoyable especially when the destination is a frozen lake. Meanwhile, I was very intrigued by the three different settings you pointed out and how each of them has a separate theme or lesson Vonnegut wants us to learn from it.

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