The past In Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the character Billy Pilgrim has experiences in his past that influence his present. In his past, Billy Pilgrim experienced horrific war events, such as the bombing of Dresden, which caused many deaths. Billy's past events have affected him psychologically and cause him to have a disturbed mental state in the present. His relationship with the past shows how war can continue to cause suffering to a person even when the suffering of being directly at war is over. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Billy Pilgrim's wartime past has affected him psychologically in the present. After returning from the war, Billy Pilgrim believes he has been abducted by aliens to their planet Tralfamadore. He begins to believe in the Tralfamadorians' concept of the fourth dimension, according to which "all moments, past, present and future, have always existed, will always exist" (16). He also becomes “unstuck in time” (14) and begins to move through time to experience events from the past and future. After the war, Billy also becomes completely apathetic in the face of deaths and other tragic events, shown with him saying "so it goes" (5) after every time he experiences witness death. After the war, Billy began to have mental disorders as he began to live in the fantasy world of the Tralfamadorians and believe in imaginary concepts. Billy Pilgrim's relationship with the past shows how war can still affect a person even after returning home or after the war. the war is over. Billy becomes unstuck in the time after the war and time shifts to relive his past and the horrific events of the war. This shows how even when a person has stopped directly participating in a war and when the suffering of being at war is seemingly over, memories of all the horrible events of the war will still continue to influence the person. The war had significantly affected Billy's mental state. As a coping mechanism for all the deaths he has witnessed, Billy begins to believe wholeheartedly in his fictional abduction by the Tralfamadorians and the fictional concept of the fourth dimension because it allows him to be apathetic in the face of death as he believes that the person is still alive and well at the moment, but only at another time. This is Billy's way of escaping reality by refusing to accept the horrible reality of war and deaths. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the character Billy Pilgrim in the present has to deal with aspects of his past. Billy's past of war and death affects him psychologically in his present. Billy's relationship with the past shows how war can affect a person psychologically as he continues to experience the sufferings of war through his time displacement and uses the Tralfamadorian and the concept of the fourth dimension as a coping mechanism for all the horrible events and deaths he had witnessed. while he was at war.