Free Will On Earth

"I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports of one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." (p. 86) In this part of the book, Billy is speaking to the Tralfamadorians, and one is explaining that humans are the only species he has found that has free will or independence. What does the Tralfamadorian mean by this? And how does this relate to Billy Pilgrim and the story of the Dresden fire? Earlier, Kurt Vonnegut talks about not looking back, but he does anyway, could this have anything to do with the fact?

"How did I get so old?"

In Chapter two, Billy travels in time to when he saw his dying mother in a nursing home. She had no life left in her but she mustered up the strength to say "How did I get so old?" (p. 44) This is a question that is asked by most people as they age, even if they are only ten years old. The question everybody has is how did life pass so quickly and leave me here all grown up? We all have a sense of the time traveling that Billy can do. We usually don't realize how fast a moment can pass until it is already gone. To Billy, his life is just moments that pass and go. In one moment, he is a boxcar with a hobo and the next moment he is at a wedding. To us, moments can pass as quickly as Billy's, but just in order.  In the end though, Billy and his mother and everyone else in the world feels the same and worries how they left their lives pass so quickly without a thought.

Adam and Eve

In Chapter 2, when Billy is back in time during the war, he talks about Adam and Eve. How they are so pure and innocent. "Billy stared into the patina of the corporal's boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. They were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them." (p.53) I think that this is Billy's way of finding some sort of anecdote of home for himself. All the other men have a little something and Billy has nothing. Adam and Eve, is his anecdote. Also, Adam and Eve could possibly represent Billy. He is innocent and kind of "babyish" liek Adame and Eve were in his hallucination. What else could Adam and Eve mean for Billy and his character? Do you think it's a significant part of the book?

Memories That Keep Replaying

There are many times in Billy's mind where memories repeat each other. Whenever he time travels, his memories are related to something that he is doing in the present. In chapter three when Billy is put in a tight box car, it says "Billy Pilgrim nestled like a spoon with the hobo on Christmas night...and he traveled in time to 1967 again." (pg. 71) Then on the next page, when Billy is back in the present, the book says "Billy and his wife, Valencia, nestled like spoons in their double bed." (pg. 72) Billy's memories of the war are triggered when his present day life is like his life in the war. This happens often, so instead of dealing with the fact that life in the sixties is similar to his life in war, he calls it time traveling. He keeps reliving his memories because they keep repeating twenty years later. He is in denial and a Tramalfadorians are an easy way to ignore what is happening to his mind. I wonder if Billy will ever realize that he can't time travel, but that only his memories are replaying themselves. He can't move past the war, so he blames it on aliens. Will Billy ever realize that he created a virtual world in his mind?

Example Posts - Meets and Exceeds

The following are two posts that may serve as models for your own. These posts use The Grapes of Wrath as the considered text, but the requirements are the same. The first is an example of a post that MEETS the standard; the second is an example that EXCEEDS the standard.

Meets:

It became apparent in chapter 5 that the narrative of the Joad family is only one perspective of the struggles people faced in the 1930s. The use of racial slurs and culturally insensitive language reminds us that the Joads, although they are a poor family lacking many basic resources, they do have the privilege of being white. The use of the word "nigger" and the highly insensitive way of speaking about Native Americans remind us that whiteness was a privilege that could elevate the status of even the most desperate farmer.

I wonder how this theme of race and culture will continue to develop over the course of the novel. What will the presence of race and racism continue to teach us about the social fabric of the U.S. in the '30s?

Exceeds:

The description of the land in Chapter 5 tells us a lot about the tensions arising out of the industrialization of farming. The physical connection to the land is broken, and this seems to lead to a bigger gap that transcends the physical.

In chapter 5, we learn that the tractor driver "could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth...Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses" (35, 36).

Humans are being replaced by machines, and these machines will never love and appreciate the land (and what the land provides) as much as the humans who farmed it with their own hands. I am curious to see how this theme continues to play out in the novel - will the divide between the human and the machine continue to grow, and will it cause the farmers' struggle to become increasingly bitter and devastating?

Notes:

• Please consider your grammar and spelling. These posts should be thoughtful and well-crafted. 
• As you can see, the posts need not be long. A few sentences, or a small paragraph or two is sufficient. Remember - quality over quantity! 
• Please title your post purposefully - your title should help give a heads-up about the content of your post.