In the tenth and last chapter of Slaughterhouse Five, the story returns to a mixture of a narration of Billy´s adventures to the author´s (Kurt Vonnegut himself suspected) own experiences. In a certain moment, the author of Billy´s travels reflects on the lessons learned by his character, coming to a conclusion that goes like this:
"If what Billy Pilgrim learned...was true, that we will all live forever...I am not overjoyed. Still-if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I´m grateful that so many of those moments are nice".
It got me thinking-if a man who witnessed arguably the most horrific war and one of its biggest massacres can say this, what can the rest of us say? Whether it is Vonnegut writing himself in his novel or whether it is some made-up character who happened to witness the Dresden raid as well, the point remains the same-he would live it all over again. The rest of his life has to have been incredible, because this is one of the few war veterans I have ever heard say they would go back in time. But I guess that those who have lived incredibly difficult situations will always have a better perspective than those who just sit around and everything falls into place for them, because they can really appreciate the value of good fortune and happiness. It also made me think if I would ever go back in time. It´s not an easy choice, but I would say no, at least in the conditions that Tralfamadorians give. I wouldn´t go back in time to relive mistakes and the same things all over again knowing it is out of my hands to change anything. This is why I believe in coincidences, lucky coincidences, but not in fate. Finding no other way to describe it other than using a cliché, I don´t believe in fate because I like to believe I am in control. Besides, changing mistakes in the past drastically alters your future, and perhaps I won´t like the future that comes out from fixing mistakes. My life has been wonderful and reliving it would not be horrific, but it certainly would not be desirable.
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