War, Free Will, and Aliens: The Story of Slaughterhouse-Five

A little heads-up to anyone reading this; I have already read the entire book. I had a long car ride at the beginning of summer, and read the whole book in one go. Thus, although I am doing a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the story, I will occasionally reference future events. In a way, it suits the theme; Billy Pilgrim knew all that had happened or ever will happen in his life; I'm just putting myself on level ground with him. In addition, to be quite frank, it's more convenient for me. So it goes. So without further ado, I will begin my analysis of the story, starting with the quote that begins the tale.

The story of Slaughterhouse-Five is introduced by an epigraph, "The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes. But the little lord Jesus, no crying he makes." This quote offers an interested parallel between the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the main character of the story, Billy Pilgrim. In the Bible, it is shown that throughout the story Jesus is aware of his inevitable fate of suffering and death. However, outside of his Agony in the Garden, he never shows any sign of apprehension or fear of death. Likewise, Billy Pilgrim knows how, when, and why he will die, but shows total indifference, as he believes that he has truly become separated from time, and thus immortal. After reading the rest of the book, Vonnegut seems to reference Jesus and His story quite frequently, for the dual purposes of shocking his audience into paying attention with occasionally irreverent references to Him and to compare Jesus' power to that of the Tralfamadorians, Billy's personal Messiahs. These references also serve to contrast Jesus and the Tralfamadorians, with Jesus' philosophy of actively attempting to change the world for the better being contrasted with the Tralfamadorians' fatalist views. This quote started off the book with the great way to compare and contrast Billy Pilgrim and the Talfamadorians to Jesus.