Many things happen in this novel, we travel to many different places with Billy, as well as many different times. I find that it is some what hard to keep track of, and it got me to thinking, how does Billy keep track of it all? He seems to have many different lives that he lives in, and yet they are really all the same.
There is when he is in the war, and all the different parts of the war.
There is life on the planet Tralfamadore, in the zoo with Montana Wildhack.
There is life with his wife Valencia.
And there is the ending of the book, when he dies, and life in the hospital, but also knowing what the Tralfamadorians know, at the same time it was when he just kept on living.
I want to know what it is like to experience life like Billy did? How did he every really understand what was going on in his life, as he kept jumping from time to time, place to place. What happened to the time period that he left? Did it pause like a movie would? Or did it just keep on going, but without Billy being consciously present?
How is life like this livable?
I think we see some of the answers towards the end of the book, on page 188, Billy is talking in his sleep, he says "If you're ever in Cody, Wyoming... just ask for Wild Bob" (Vonnegut). We can recall reading these very same words back on page 67. Do you think that Billy had time traveled to this time in the war, and he was talking because thats what he was really hearing? Or do you think he was actually in the hospital at the time, and he was having a sort of dream, and just talking about what had happened?
We also see a similar thing on the bottom of page 188, when Billy's daughter is asking for him, saying "Daddy--...Daddy...? But Billy was ten years away , back in 1958" (Vonnegut). I wonder what Billy heard at this time, and is this how it's always like when he time travels, unresponsive in all other times of his life but the time that he's in, or is it just because he was sick and dying? If it is the case, how do people not realize that something is the matter with him? How is it possible to live life like that of Billy Pilgrim?
I always imagined that the time that Billy left paused because when he returned to that time, someone was always trying to get his attention or shaking him. An example of the shaking would be in the beginning of the book where he is in the war, and he is getting yelled at by Weary to get out of the way. He time travelled while this was happening to another time, but when he returned, that memory started off from that point. I feel like life like this would be difficult as one cannot really settle into one specific time period, but it seems as if Billy has everything under control, or it could be that Vonnegut wants his readers to think so. For the "Billy Bob" part, I don't think he actually time travelled. I think he had sort of a dream, and he was in that mind set? I think he was still there in that time that he left somehow. The best way I can think to describe it would be like a TV. Shows come on all the time, even when the TV isn't turned on. Just because one doesn't have the TV on to actually watch the show, doesn't mean that it won't play. Similarly, even if Billy isn't there, the parties involved in that memory, still know he's there? I don't know really how else to explain it.
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