Nothing is for Sure

“Would you like to know the future?” I ask my sister. “No.” “Would you like to know the future, mom?” “No,” she answers and adds, “the only thing that is for sure, sweetie, is: we are all going to die.”

I agree with her. No matter how great the future is we are all end alone six feet under or dancing with the wind. I think that from all of us, Billy Pilgrim is the one that understands this more. That’s why I pity him.

There is nothing more delicious than being surrounded with the people you love, listening how the wind moves the leaves from their place and the birds singing with the breath of nature. But there is nothing more awful than being surrounded with the people you love, listening how the wind moves the leaves from their place and the birds singing with the breath of nature, if you know that it is all going to end with the coming of bombs and tears are coming. This is what took Billy Pilgrims joy. He wasn’t able to love and enjoy the small moments of his life, nor he could experience feelings that color and shade life. All this was extracted from him and Billy Pilgrim became one insignificant body in a world of six million souls.

Billy could play with the clock. He saw the horrors in the beginning of the century and the same sight in the middle of it. No matter how much time had passed “ He was expecting World War Three at any time.” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five, pg.57) He wasn’t worried about catching up in the new advances, luxuries and history of the future, because only two things are for sure: humans will always be monsters killing their own race, and we are all going to die.

Although Pilgrim is the perfect character to make a difference in the world, and bring people together for a better future and become the next influential person, he gave up. He understood from the beginning the people would become cold hearted and preferred to live without feelings than having them and learning to manage sufferement and happiness. Also, they decided to replace love for pleasure, and so did he, skipping the time, effort and commitment to grow a relationship, he preferred to watch “…a dirty picture of a woman attempting sexual intercourse with a Shetland pony.” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five.pg.40) Billy Pilgrim gave up on people because only three things are for sure: pleasure replaced love, humans will always be monsters killing their own race, and we are all going to die.

But, why didn’t Billy Pilgrim change and stand out from the crowd? Why didn’t he break the cycle and quit the flow? Well, “Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present and the future.” (Kurt Vonnecut, Slaughterhouse-Five, pg.60). Billy knew that for the rest of history humans would repeat the same mistake and his own destiny was already written. So, why take the effort to change if only four things are for sure: our future is already written and there is nothing to do, pleasure replaced love, humans will always be monsters killing their own race, and we are all going to die.

“Billy was not moved to protest the bombing of North Vietnam, did not shudder about the hideous things he himself had seen bombing do. He was simply having lunch with the Lions Club, of which he was past president now.” (Kurt Vonnecut, Slaughterhouse- Five, pg.60) This demonstrates the person that Billy became. He is a demonstration of the attitude and the mind that humans have build. He is the image of what he have become.