Nelson Mandela once said, "Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death" (Nelson Mandela). In this quote we learn to keep moving forward in life no matter what. We are going to face hard times in life, but we have to accept that and move forward without looking back and regretting the past. Slaughterhouse Five gives us three views of moving forward: the Tralfamadorian's, Kurt Vonnegut's and poor Billy's view who is stuck in the middle. .
As we are comparing these views what we are really diving into is the views of the non-human versus human view or the Tralfamadorians versus Kurt Vonnegut. When looking at Billy, we see he is in the middle. He has moments of strength where his views are those of an alien, and he also has breakdowns where he shows his human nature. In chapter one, Kurt Vonnegut really shows his human side and even goes out to prove how he is human. Then the Tralfamadorians teach us how to feel no unhappiness. They teach Billy, more importantly, to move on from troubles in his life, but since Billy is human, this concept, to him, brings challenge. .
First, let us take a look at Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse Five. As part of being human, we have temptations and emotions. We feel sympathy for those around us and feel the need to grieve after one's death. The Tralfamadorians thought differently, but that topic we will save for later. Now, lets take a look at what Kurt Vonnegut tells us in the first chapter. Lot's wife was told to not look back at where peoples home and the people had been, "But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human"(Vonnegut 22). He loves this because he knew as a human that he was going to look back in his life and have to regret and mourn over the past.
