The Tralfamadore, who are the group of aliens who kidnap Billy, knows how the world will end. Again, this is just like One Hundred Years of Solitude. The gypsy knows how the story of Macondo and the Buendia family will end. However he does nothing to help change their fate like Tralfamadore. They tell Billy that they are at war and the universe will end when one of their pilots accidentally blow up. They state that war is something that can not be prevented.
Meanwhile, Billy is transported back and forth into time. He visits childhood memories mixed with some war memories. He is in a mental hospital and he realizes that life is meaningless, which he also displayed in the first chapter. The Tralfamadore gives an actress to be Billy's mate. The hospital tells his daughter, Barbara, also that he is insane and she takes him home.
As I was reading this chapter, I was consistently questioning the reality. Which is real? The Tralfamadore or that Billy is insane? As a reader, I'm sure that everyone would be convinced that the idea that Billy is insane is more realistic. However as a reader also, you can see the truth that Tralfamadore represents.
The Tralfamadore shows a world without free will. They empathize that free will is a joke, some mythological thing that human beings have created and believe in [like God] when in reality, there is no such thing that exists. By empathizing this, the message shows that free will is important although often lost. It got me thinking that what if we don't really have free will? Sometimes it seems that people we put in power are controlling us. Although we might fight against wars that presidents create and high prices of gases that big CEOs impose, we are almost demanded to take it out of necessity. We HAVE to pay those high prices. We HAVE to pay these taxes which in the end, fund a war we don't want. These minor things all seem to be fate. These minor things questions our free will. Do we really have it if we're consistently condemned to follow something we seemingly have no control over?
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