Even though Slaughterhouse Five is told in a light hearted way, the main character, Billy Pilgrim, has had many traumatic experiences. Being a soldier is especially is difficult and horrific, but Billy has endured lots of incidents in and out of war. While on Tralfamadore, it seemed as if the Tralfamadorians were always peaceful. Even though they are not, they have the ability to chose with ease what point in time they want to focus on.

In chapter 5, Billy Pilgrim was given a piece of advice by the Tralfamadorians; “That’s one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones” (117).

I think that Billy wants very much to implement the advice the Tralfamadorians gave him into his life but cannot completely ignore the bad times. He tells the story of terrible times as if it were not a big deal, and it seems to me that he is trying to make the bad moments seem less bad, even if he can’t forget about them, so he can feel more peaceful like the Tralfamadorians. I also think that Vonnegut put this into his story as a piece of advice for the reader. We are “earthlings” as well, so their advice is also directed at us. I wonder how difficult it would be to try and ignore the horrors of war, and if i would handle it any better than Billy Pilgrim or Vonnegut. Is ignoring the bad and pretending it didn’t happen really better than coming to terms with it and learning other ways to cope?