To me, Slaughterhouse Five is a novel written to show the horror of war. This is shown by the means of the protagonist- Billy Pilgrim. , 'Billys phsychic journeys symbolize the wounded soul in need of relief from the horrors of modern life' (Harris, last 2 lines). I happen to disagree with one part of this statement. I think that Billys journeys symbolize the wounded soul in need of relief from the horrors of war.
I disagree with Mrs. Harris, because when I read the story, when I saw how miserable Billy was with his life (wife, job, etc.) it still didnt make me feel that this was the reason for Billys phsychic journeys. As I read on, I became positive that the reason for Billys journeys was
definitly the Dresden bombing as it was quoted: 'Billys response to the holocaust (Dresden) is to escape into an imaginary kidnaping at the hands of the Tralfamadorians......This existential determinnism enables Billy to endure the trauma of Dresden and to live with the threat of
apocalypse; it also makes him an ethical basket case...' (Magill, 2729).…
