In Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five, a fictional character called Bill Pilgrim is used to represent various themes about life and war. Vonnegut went through difficult times in Dresden, which eventually led him to write about the tragedies and emotional effects that come with war. By experiencing war firsthand, Vonnegut is able to connect and relate to the traumatic events that soldiers go through. Through the use of Billy Pilgrim and the other characters, Vonnegut is able to show the horrific effects that war can have on these men, not only during the war but afterward as well. From the beginning Vonnegut portrays a strong anti-war sentiment, which he makes more evident through Billy Pilgrim. Some of these men were uprooted from their home life to fight a war they had no interest in and ended up becoming a completely different person than it. Vonnegut consistently shows how war can have an effect on an individual and the consequences it can cause. Billy Pilgrim is used to show these affections and the consequences of war. After being a prisoner of war in Germany, it didn't take long for Billy to realize that there are no good outcomes when it comes to war. After returning home from the war he tried to distance himself from everyone around him. He would constantly have flashbacks thinking about his experiences and the pain he went through. When Billy was engaged in the Battle of the Bulge, he realized that the only way to deal with difficult times was to use death as an escape route. When times got tough after the war, he too turned to death as an escape route. He felt that this was the easiest way out and that it was the only way to relieve the pain and he forgot his tragic experiences. Billy shows no regard for... the middle of paper... the deaths he brings with him have taken many lives, some innocent and some guilty. The experiences these men live are those that a human being should not have to live. It is the destiny of the human race to continue to fight and engage in wars and until this ends we will lose millions of past and present soldiers in war, perhaps not directly but the memories and images they experience will. War is inevitable in the world we live in today and the only thing we can do is help those who have fought because some of them are lost internally and need support to become the person they once were. Work Cited Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Narrator in Slaughterhouse-Five." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. March 11, 2014. Bloom, Harold. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2001. Print.SparkNotes. SparkNotes and Web. March 11. 2014.