Critics often suggest that Kurt Vonnegut's novels represent one man's desperate but futile search for meaning in a meaningless existence. Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, displays this theme. Kurt Vonnegut uses a different narrator than the main character. Use this technique for several reasons. Kurt Vonnegut introduces the Slaughterhouse Five in first person. In the second chapter, however, this narrator turns into a mere spectator. Vonnegut does this for a specific reason. He wants the reader to realize that the narrator and Billy Pilgrim, the main character, are two different people. To do this, Vonnegut inserts the narrator into the text several times. "An American close to Billy complained that [Billy] had expelled everything except his brain... That was me. That was me." This statement clearly illustrates that the narrator and Billy are not the same person. The narrator was the American disgusted by Billy. Vonnegut places the narrator in the novel in subtle ways. Describing the trains of German prisoners, he states simply: "I was there." Not referring to Billy as I do, Billy is immediately his own person. I am the narrator, while Billy is Billy. Their only connection is that they were both at war. Kurt Vonnegut inserts his experiences and opinions into the text. He begins the book by stating, “All of this happened, more or less. The parts relating to the war, however, are more or less true... I changed all the names." Considering the war as a sense...... middle of paper ......to the future. With these information, Billy begins to know the future. “I, Billy Pilgrim, will die, I am dead and I will always die on February 13, 1976.” Billy is indeed right with this prediction. Realizing that everything is planned, Billy ends his search for meaning . He understands that he can do nothing to stop the senseless acts from happening. Like the Tralfamadores, he must try to focus on the good moments and not the bad ones. He could do nothing to stop them or change them man cannot change his own destiny. Any attempt to change the past or the future is meaningless. Therefore there is nothing to search for and the search for meaning is futile.