Parallels - Novel Blog 1 (Slaughterhouse-Five)

"Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath - mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up."

~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 73

Okay, so this book is a little difficult (I have a hard enough time when it's in chronological order), but here's a stab at some analysis.

There are so many different recurring events in the novel, but I'm pretty sure there's a particularly significant parallel here. At the beginning, Billy first was confronted by Barbara about his article in the paper, and she was really upset because, well, naturally people get upset when they think their parents are crazy. Billy was talking about all the time travel he had done and the Tralmafadorians. Billy had also been in the war and is clearly suffering (at least during some parts of the novel) from PTSD (that's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, people). I think there is a link between the war and the time travel (shocker, right?). Barbara is so upset by this time travel thing, but Billy just accepts it completely like the Tralmafadorians do. There's a quote in the book and I'm  not sure what page it is, but it talks about freewill and how the aliens had never heard of it until they met humans. Billy is not only subject totally to the time travel, but also to his PTSD and war experiences. The reason Billy is so open to the abduction and being "unstuck from time" is because he has already used to dealing with unpleasant things that he feels he cannot change; he succumbs to the idea rather than rebelling against it. I'm not really sure if any of this is important, but that was a parallel I found in the book!

Life Sucks! Get Over It / Parallelism (Chapter 7/ Pages 77-89)

" "It's not so bad now," she said, even though the rain was steady as ever. "Let's just go out there. Then maybe the sun will come out too." "

~ Never Let Me Go, page 81-82

So Miss Lucy just told the kids very directly that they will have to donate when they get older and that they have no control over their futures. She thought that was what they needed, and maybe it was, but it seemed to darken the mood over the whole class. When she was done, she looked out at the rain and the fields and said the quote above. At first, I almost thought she was still talking about donating and what's ahead for these kids. What's funny is that this quote does somewhat parallel the attitude that the students have. They know that they will have to do, but they still take on life and think that it may be better for them; they may have a happy life with a successful job, but they know the harsh realities that will soon face them, even if they don't understand them. This is really quite depressing for me. I wish there was a way to give them something else to look forward to - something like a career or children.