Over the course of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five, the reader is taken through the events of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a character who surprisingly survives the bombing of Dresden and many other other tragedies. Ironically, Billy finds comfort in the idea that free will is a fictitious belief and that nothing can be done about any of the surrounding misfortunes that occur during his lifetime, or in any other lifetime. He expresses his thoughts and justifies them with accusations of alien abduction, and as a result is not taken seriously. While the text may imply that his extraterrestrial experiences did not occur, it still recognizes his ideology as valid and one of the major themes prevalent throughout the novel. Vonnegut uses Billy Pilgrim's life experiences and other devices to convey the idea that free will is a mere illusion and that there will perpetually be hardships in life that all beings will be forced to endure. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThere are several characteristics of Billy Pilgrim that illustrate him as a peculiar character. One of the most notable is that after the bombing of Dresden, the death of his wife, a plane crash in which he was miraculously the only surviving passenger, as well as other misfortunes, he claims to have been abducted by aliens who had unique philosophies about time and nature of life in general. The Tralfamadorians, the aliens who abduct him, have distinct views of time and space, while the past, present and future are eternally ongoing events that will never cease to end. Essentially, every moment occurs simultaneously, and the Tralfamadorians possess the ability to see any point in time, which they describe as the fourth dimension. They claim to have seen all parts of time, such as the end of the world, but there is simply nothing they can do to alter the future; it simply is. This belief is contrary to the common idea of ​​free will on Earth, as one Tralfamadorian bluntly stated: “I have visited thirty-one planets… and studied reports on a hundred others. Only on Earth is there talk of free will” (86). Billy's experience with Tralfamadore is a turning point in the novel where the myth of free will becomes an obvious theme. He is involuntarily drafted into World War II, where he later survives the bombing of Dresden and, finally, after the war, is the only survivor of a plane crash, all things he has no power to change. As a result, he develops a mental illness, although it is also implied that he may have had a predisposition for it in the first place (again, something over which he has no control). Additionally, a quote that appears twice on a sign in Billy's office, and last in the engraving of a locket of a fellow Tralfamadorian prisoner of Billy's is: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always manages to distinguish (60, 209). This serves to underline the theme that certain destinies are set in stone and cannot be changed in any way, and accepting this fact is the easiest way to deal with it. Billy Pilgrim does this and sits back, allowing life to take its course without interference or objections. It also emphasizes the narrator's disbelief in free will .“So it goes” is a repetitive phrase that follows every description of death in the novel and illustrates the inevitability of the event. “And so on” is another phrase often used after the description of events..