Slaughterhouse Five is undoubtedly a novel about war. Although it is mainly an anti war novel, at least half of the text focuses on Billy’s war experience either directly in Germany, or the post traumatic stress disorder that has a large effect on his life following the end of World War II. It is clear that Billy suffers PTSD. He suffers from nightmares during multiple scenes in the story, and even kicks in his sleep while in Germany. In chapter three, he hears a siren and thinks that World War III is upon him. This quickness to startle is evident that Billy suffers from PTSD. Since Billy was clearly so distraught that he felt the need to visit another dimension, I decided that I would further investigate PTSD and the effects it has had on soldiers today.
I found that one in three United States troops will be diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder following their return to their normal life. This causes an increase in depression, suicide, and homelessness among veterans. Roughly 9% of homeless people today served the country at one time. Although this number is down from the outrageously high percentage of 67% in 2009, I still believe that there is room for improvement.
Looking further into developments surrounding post traumatic stress disorder, I found a recent study that proved that PTSD is caused by an imbalance in two signalling systems in the brain.This could improve medicinal treatments and benefit many veterans in the long run. It also proved that each person suffering from post traumatic stress disorder struggles differently than others. The change that people experience is not universal, and is unique to the individual. The imbalance in the signalling systems causes a delay. I cannot help to believe that this delay could have been the time that Billy spent during Slaughterhouse 5 travelling to Tralfamadore and thinking that he was suspended in time.
