Post-War Madness“This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic style of tales of the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from.” Madness is a major theme in Kurt Vonnegut's life, and in turn, his novels tend to liberate his thoughts on mental illness. Vonnegut's characters tend to embody him, or at least his characteristics. His characters generally suffer from mild madness and thus he suggests that Vonnegut himself may be slightly mad. In each of his novels there are characters strongly linked to Vonnegut such as Kilgore Trout, Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater. Each of these characters appears in several novels to help develop the plot and continue the related theme. The theme of madness is what dominates the novel Slaughterhouse-Five and is what ties all aspects of the story together. In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five there is a character identical to Vonnegut. His name is Billy Pilgrim. Both were in the US Army and became prisoners of war. Additionally, they both witnessed the bombing of Dresden, Germany. “Dresden was destroyed on the night of February 13, 1945,” BillyPilgrim began. “We came out of our shelter the next day.” (Slaughterhouse-Five179) Billy is a thin and fragile boy who joined the army to become a man, like the author. “World War II appealed to both of them because they realized it was an important time in history. With the horrors of war Pilgrim entered a state of near madness which was described as "...bearded... in a blue toga and silver shoes, with his hands in a muff (Slaughterhouse-Five 149)." This description is after getting off a POW train on a “mild” day in Dresden. Vonnegut also had this character "unstuck in time" or, on a more realistic level, have flashbacks, although Pilgrim's flashbacks project him into the future as well as the past. His future is at the Tralfamador zoo; The Tralfamadorians are little green men, the Tralfamadorians, as a sort of appeasement for his capture, gave Pilgrim a beautiful wife. This flashforward was most likely just a science fiction writer's fantasy. His real future is as an optometrist in Ilium, New York. Its disconnection over time is precisely a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. It appears in both Pilgriman and Vonnegut, and later in Rosewate... middle of the paper... every death is in the novel. On page 210, the first five paragraphs highlight the frequency with which this quote is reproduced. Additionally, this quote shows Billy's removal from the situation. Many people would find these events extremely traumatizing, but for Billy he simply withdraws from the entire scenario. This allows him to continue life without dealing with daily pain and suffering. Kurt Vonnegut gives vent to his mental illness through his three main literary self-portraits. Not only does it do this, but it also provides us with insightful information and advice that will help us later in life. His honesty and direct manner aid the relief process of Vonnegut or any author who uses writing as catharsis. His need to rejuvenate himself from all the post-war trauma is a perfect example of a form of madness. Kurt Vonnegut uses all his novels to express all the emotions accumulated over years of repression. He uses the theme of madness throughout his works to convey to the audience how he identifies. Madness is the dominant force in Slaughterhouse-Five and the passage on page 210 is the decisive force in portraying