Why the FLASHBACKS?

Constantly during the book Billy Pilgrim goes back in time to different moments of his life. During his travel to Tralfamadoria “…Billy was flung back into his childhood. He was twelve years old…at the rim of Grand Canyon.” (88-89) Moment later “[he] made a peewee jump of only ten days…still touring the west with his family.” (89) All the flashbacks Billy has reminded me of a movie a just saw, called "Source Code," and made me wonder what was the purpose of Billy´s constant flash backs Basically the movie is based around the same scene, and the protagonist goes back to it constantly, trying to figure out the responsible of the bombing of a train, who will later put a nuclear bomb in another place of the city. Like Billy who knows what happens in the future: “…the high school teacher who would be shot to death in Dresden.” (Pg. 99), Colter Stevens also becomes aware of what is going to happen next, and he acts accordingly. The movie takes place like in a four dimension world, because Stevens, who is a dead soldier, takes the body of a civilian on board of the bombed train, but when he goes back the bomb had already occur. So like Billy, he goes back in time but only for eight minutes: also known as the source code. (An experiment that is based on the theory that after people die the brain is still alive for eight minute.) The goal Colter has is to find out who the criminal was, to be able to stop him form activating the nuclear bomb authorities know he will activate.

 

The fact that Colter has a goal got me thinking if the flashbacks Billy has have a purpose. Every time Billy goes back in time random information appears. Once he went back and “woke up with his head under a blanket in a ward for nonviolent patients in a veterans hospital…” (Pg. 99) Later I learned that Billy himself went to that hospital because he was going crazy.  Also during the description of Billy´s stay at that hospital, it is said that Billy had a fiancée called Valencia Merble. As I mentioned before, every time Billy travels in time, random information is given. With this observation I can say that the purpose of this time travels, until know, is to inform. Billy describe his experiences in the war, and with his time travel we are able to know information about his past, and therefore make connections with his future experiences that are to come.