In his blog “Entertaining Differences,”Alberto Andrade talks about the time when Billy was displayed in the Tralfamadorian zoo, and compares it the colonization period, when the Europeans used to display Indians in their courts. I agree with what he is saying, and I wonder how the Indians use to feel. They were people with different customs and views, and they were ridiculed by the Europeans who felt they were inferior, just because they were more “civilized” but who were they to judge whether they were more “civilized” and more human than the rest of the population of the world?
Alberto also mentioned circuses, and as I was reading the description of the zoo: “He was forty-four years old, on display under a geodesic dome…he was naked. The Tralfamadorians were interested in his body-all of it.” (pg. 111) I started thinking about animals, and how they could feel in the zoo. Just like Billy, “in a simulated Earthling habitat,”(112) many animal live in cages that the zoo keepers try to make as similar to their habitat, but many times they don´t succeed. They are isolated from their community and their families. Even though humans are consider the most intelligent race, animals still feel. How would you feel if at a young age you were taken from your parents and put in display, 24/7? On the contrary, Billy never says that he feels isolated or sad, like I believe animals feel, in fact the way he describes everything makes it seems as if he were enjoying all of the attention because every time he moved, “the crowd [of Tralfamadorians] went wild.” (pg 112) As Alberto stated, “these things are a product of his [Billy´s] imagination,” and it makes sense because in the zoo, Billy is the center of attention, which could reflect that he feels lonely in “earth” and is crazy enough to invent a world of his one.
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