Existence

"It was alright," said Billy. "Everything was all right, and everybody has to do exactly what he does. I learned that on Tralfamadore."



This is Billy's reply to Professor Rumfoord's inquiry as to how he felt about the bombing of Dresden. Billy's ambivalence to events is an extension of his ability to for see the future, thus, losing all surprise in life. It is important that Billy uses "all right" in the second part instead of "alright." Had he used "alright," he would of been continuing the confession of his emotional view of the bombing, instead, he uses "all right," which is an allusion to the fact that Billy knew what would happen because of his time traveling abilities and that everything had happened all right according to plan. This demonstrates the theme of Predeterminism that clouds the novel and Billy's perception of reality. His blunt, uncaring way of recanting the executions and deaths of his friends stem from the looming element that everything has been preplanned and will only happen that way. Predeterminism obliterates of free will, a concept that the Tralfamadorians also teach. His experiences time travelling and with the Tralfamadorians are a metaphor for the irony of free will in a world that has no surprises or possibilities of alternate outcomes.

Billy's experiences serve as a metaphor for the senselessness in human behavior in the context of predetermination and existentialism, is the inclusion in the war a cause for Billy's beliefs or an extension of them?