Our Own Free Will Essay Example

We all have our own free will. Some people believe that we don’t actually get to use it, but if you look at it closely we do. We just decide the consequences of the action we take worth it. In the novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, we see the character Billy Pilgrim, as he goes through life trying to find if he has his own free will. While others are saying he does not. So do we really have free will? Or do we just choose not to use it?

Billy is becoming unstuck and stuck in time throughout the whole novel. He asks the Tralfamadorians “don’t you believe in free will” (86). They thought the idea of free will was funny. They claimed that only they have their own free will. They tell Billy “Only on Earth is there talk of free will” (86). This makes Billy believe that there is no such thing as free will. While that is said, Vonnegut is trying to tell us that we have this idea to show us that we have our own free will. Yet we do not use it like we can. We need to test the boundaries set by society to use our free will to its highest extent.

We see Billy going through life just watching what is going on. He does not believe he can change many things, most of them being that he “could not change the past, present, and the future” (60). What he really is doing is trying to maintain his own illusion of him not having his own free will. He believes that if he does not have free will, he can excuse himself for the responsibility of his own actions.

Vonnegut used reverse psychology in the book when the Tralfamadorians tell us only they have free will. They are being facetious. Vonnegut is telling us that we truly do have our own free will, we just do not choose to use it. Weather it is we do not use it at all or in certain things. We do not use it to the extent that we could.

We all have our own free will. We all use it in our own way we like. No matter who you are you have free will. Vonnegut used Slaughterhouse Five to help us see that society has put its own personal limitto the ue of free will, but we still can use it. We need to and can push the boundaries of our own free will. To its fullest extent. Everybody has their own choice on using this free will. The only thing to do now, is use it in a way Billy Pilgrim did not.