slaughterhouse 5 essay

Michael Stenbeck

Hour 3

Slaughterhouse 5 essay

“Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorian’s say about dead people, which is ‘so it goes’”.(pg. 27)  This quote is a great lesson to learn in life and can be applied to everyday life.  Death is just part of life and you must learn how to overcome the tragedy and move on in your own life.  When learning how to cope with death, other parts of life can help you, like past experiences in your life or advice from other people who have gone through the same experience of death or maybe just talking to someone else and letting them know how you feel.

One way to deal with death is to talk to other people who have also experienced death, and see how they cope with it.  This is exactly what Billy did in Slaughterhouse Five; however, he learned from a made up land that he traveled to that was called Tralfamadore.  Even though the Tralfamadorian’s were little green people from another planet they had a good outlook on life.  The Tralfamadorian’s always said “So it goes” when dealing with death, which is what Billy eventually learned to do.  The Tralfamadorian’s outlook on life was that death was just another part of life and it was something that should be celebrated because the person has moved on to there next stage in life.  Instead of being down and depressed like most people are.

Another way to cope with death is to learn from past experiences in your own life.  One way Billy learned to deal with death was with his past experiences with being in war.  When Billy was in war he saw death around him everyday.  At one point during the Dresden war Billy saw death all around him.  Billy discovered that death is all around him and it will always be. Death is just part of life and it shouldn’t be something you get all worked up about.

Finally, another way to cope with death or the loose of a loved one is to talk to others and your going through.          let them know how you feel.  This is what Billy did with the Tralfamadorian’s when he wrote to the local paper about them.  Even though it wasn’t about death it was important to Billy to let others know how he felt about the Tralfamadorian’s and let them know who they truly were.  This taught me that it is important to tell others how you feel and what you’re doing to cope with things like death.  It can make you feel much better and it can make you feel like a weight has been lifted off of your shoulders knowing that someone else now knows what