Slaughterhouse Five is an interesting book. I think that Billy Pilgrim is the best example so far of a character blending fact and fiction. Billy is either crazy or he is suffering from PTSD. After the war, I don’t think that he is able to face reality. He already seemed to have a hard time to facing reality before the war. He was timid and had a hard time taking care of himself. His father pushed him into the deep end of the swimming pool and Billy almost drowned until he was saved by someone else. Any hope Billy had to become more confident and any interests he may have had disappeared with the war. He was a young innocent boy that was forced to go “fight” a war. And Billy seemed to really have no idea what he was even fighting for. Vonnegut uses Billy as a stereotype to illuminate the reality for many of the boys sent off to war. Billy not only doesn’t want to be there but he shouldn’t be. So he “time-travels”. Billy escapes his reality by going to another point in his life. He believes in the Tralfamadorian idea that a person is always living another part of their life. So even when a person dies they are living in another time. This doesn’t really make sense to me. Does that mean that even before a person is born they are living already? But I think this is Vonnegut’s purpose. He doesn’t want this to make sense. He doesn’t want someone to escape their problems by ignoring them. In the end Vonnegut’s message reminds me of the quote Montana has on her necklace and what Billy has on his wall in his office. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference”. Vonnegut wants people to realize that although there will always be parts of your life that you cannot change, you should change the parts you have control over. And in the end, the only thing you have control over is your actions.

I think that all of the main characters in Beloved
struggle with facing reality. So they create their own realities. And then they
live in those illusions.

Denver grows up isolated from the world around her so she
seems to think that everything outside of the walls of 124 is evil or will some
way bring her harm. She has lived vicariously from her mother’s stories, which
seem to be the main cause of her fear. So I instead of facing her fears she
draws away from society which is not good for anyone, especially a child.
Denver is so desperate for a friend that she starts to play with the
"ghost" of her dead sister. This leads me to believe that the ghost
is not really real but she is in Denver and Sethe's mind. Both women get so
drawn into the house that they blur reality and fiction in their lives in that
house. I think Denver believes in the ghost because she doesn't know anything
any different and has a need and desire for a friend. And then when Beloved
comes she is finally able to put an idea with something tangible. Denver then
develops an obsessive and unhealthy relationship for this girl. I also don't
think that Beloved is actually Denver's dead sister reincarnated. I think that
without knowing it Sethe and Denver made her into the dead baby because in
their skewed reality Beloved was still alive.

And this is where the illusion starts to crumble. Sethe
and Denver actually mix reality with fiction which illuminates the flaws of
their illusion. If Beloved was actually the dead baby their illusion wouldn't
have changed. But it did change. The arrival of Beloved forced Denver to go out
in the world which allowed her to actually see reality for the way it is.
Beloved also forced Sethe to face her past. Sethe had allowed herself to live
in memories of the past of her choosing. But once Beloved showed up she started
remembering both the good and the bad and with outside help it would have
ruined her. Paul D was her outside help along with Denver. He encouraged Sethe
to live for tomorrow instead of reliving the past. And he reminded her that she
was her own best thing. Paul D was living in his own distorted reality but with
Sethe he realized that he needed to start living reality again too. And
together they will ‘set their stories next to each other” and will start living
reality again.

Meursault does not live in an illusion. He does not hide behind a mask nor does he try to be someone that he is not. And that may be the strangest part about The Stranger.

During class discussions, we talked about how we admired Meursault’s honesty. He said what he was thinking even when it was not the answer that other people were looking for. I never really considered my Big Blog Question in class but now that I do, it is a bit of a surprise for me. There has not been one character in any book that we have read so far that has no created some sort of illusion for himself. Meursault seems to be the exception, not the rule.

All of the other characters, and people I have observed in real life, seem to create an illusion to protect themselves from something, whether it be some other person or some sort of disappointment. People tend to put on a mask to please others or to fit in. I think that is why we find Meursault so peculiar. He does not put on a mask and is very honest to himself and everyone he meets.

Yet he is punished for it. His trial of the murder of the Arab turns into judging his “soul” and personality. No one understands why he did not cry at his mother’s funeral. They seem to think that he is emotionless. When he does not defend himself by “putting on a mask” and responding the way people want him to, he is condemned. When it is so easy for people to convict Meursault for this, it makes me realize how common it is to create an illusion. Not all illusions are huge, but it is unusual for people to give up information about themselves when it will hurt their reputation. It is lying, in a way, but most people see this as harmless.

Meursault has made me realize that the norm is people create illusions. It is part of the culture that we live in and have lived in for a long time.