Theme Of Free Will In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

“Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion” (Dictionary.com). The novel Slaughterhouse five portrays the idea of not having free will. The award winning author, Kurt Vonnegut, tells us about a character’s (Billy Pilgrim) life during World War two and how Billy coped with the bombings of Dresden. During this period, Billy became a prisoner of war. During this time as a prisoner, Billy learned that humans do not have control of their own free will.

Due to the lack of free will, he recognizes that no person can change fate. As well as a person must accept death, and finally, allow their life to evolve naturally.

Billy Pilgrim was a survivor of one of the biggest tragedies in

First off, Billy was not frazzled at all when he was notified about the bombings of North Vietnam. The narrator described the moment as: “Billy was not moved to protest the bombing of North Vietnam, did not shudder about the hideous things he himself had seen bombing do. He was simply having lunch.” (pg 60). This was a great example of how no matter what a person does, they will always end up with the same results- no matter what. Billy could have began to protect and care about North Vietnam but he accepted his fate and realized that if he was meant to do something about it, he would. Adding on, he did not apply his attention to it because his fate did not lead him there. Billy applied the fact that he had to accept his fate and destiny to the way he lived his life. For example, Billy went back to his optometry school even after the war. He was in that school before the war and the war did not end up changing anything. He went back to school because he said it just felt like he needed to, because it felt right to him. This is an example of Billy just letting