In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut's prophetic vision of time and travel reveals his philosophical view toward free will. Throughout Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut argues that the loss of free will is affected by a parallel of controllable and uncontrollable events that occur in the life of the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut argues that Billy's loss of free will results from his experiences in life, specifically, his childhood, marriage, and participation in war. The dark humored novel stresses the point that given the ability to harness free will, i.e. control his destiny, man, being an egocentric creature, finds it an impossible task. This is seen through Billy's lack of resolve when faced with the primary decisions he must make. He seems to always be the passive receiver of various actions rather than the aggressive initiator. .
Through war, Vonnegut shows how free will is lost in several ways. One example is through death. While finishing high school and taking night classes at the Ilium School of Optometry, Billy is drafted into World War II and sent overseas where he is thrown into the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He is immediately taken prisoner behind German lines. Billy is transported in a crowded railroad boxcar to a POW camp in Germany, where he encounters Roland Weary, another soldier taken prisoner by the Germans. Weary dies and for some reason blames Billy, making sure that everyone in the boxcar knows the name Billy Pilgrim. After Weary's accusation of Billy, Paul Lazzaro, another captured soldier, hears about this situation and becomes obsessed with keeping a promise to avenge Weary's death by killing Billy: .
"Lazzaro, too, had been on Roland Weary's boxcar, and had given his word of honor to Weary that he would find some way to make Billy Pilgrim pay for Weary's death. He was looking around now, wondering which naked human being was Billy." (pg.
