The Role Of Kilgore Trout
By: Liam Fredericks
Who is Kilgore Trout?
Argument #1
Billy Pilgrim and Kilgore Trout
Thesis
Quote #3
Kilgore Trout is a catalyst to Billy's descent.
"The name of the book was The Board, he got a few paragraphs into it, and then he realized he had read it years before in the veterans hospital. It was about an earthling man who was kidnapped by extra-terrestrials"
(Vonnegut 201)
Quote #2
- A few months after the war ends, Billy Pilgrim is put into psychiatric care to recover from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Billy's PTSD involved many fantasies involving aliens, or tralfamadorians.
Kilgore Trout has a vital role in the novel as he acts as a catalyst for the main character Billy Pilgrim and allows Billy to escape reality through his various science fiction novels.
"The book was maniacs in the fourth dimension, by Kilgore Trout. It was about people whose mental diseases couldn't be treated because the causes of the diseases were all in the fourth dimension, and three dimensional earthling doctors couldn't see those causes at all, or even imagine them." (Vonnegut 104).
This made Billy feel like that everything he was seeing was okay because he was reading it in a novel, therefore he kept drifting more and more away from reality.
Who is Kilgore Trout
Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by Kurt Vonnegut. It is believed that Trout is Kurt Vonnegut's alter ego.
What is an Alter Ego?
An alter ego is defined as somebody's secondary or alternative personality
-At this point Eliot Rosewater introduces Billy to the works of Kilgore Trout. Trout's works help Billy escape from reality and connect with a different kind of world view.
PTSD can make people feel very nervous or ‘on edge’ all the time. Many feel startled very easily, have a hard time concentrating, feel irritable, or have problems sleeping well. They may often feel like something terrible is about to happen, even when they are safe. Some people feel very numb and detached. They may feel like things around them aren’t real, feel disconnected from their body or thoughts, or have a hard time feeling emotions. (Canadian Mental Health).
"They had both found life meaningless, partly because of what they had seen in war. Rosewater,for instance had shot a fourteen-year old fireman, mistaking him for a German soldier. So it goes. and Billy had seen the greatest massacre in European history, which was the fire bombing of Dresden. So it goes.
So they were trying to reinvent themselves and their universe, science fiction was a big help" (Vonnegut 101).
This contributes to Billy's descent because if Billy hadn't found out about Trout's novels than he wouldn't have had a fantasy world that allowed him to escape from reality.
In any novel there is at least one catalyst that causes events or change in relation to the main characters lives. Catalysts are usually minor characters in novels but they have major roles. Kilgore Trout is a very minor character in Slaughterhouse Five but his role is one of the most important in saving Billy Pilgrim from his PTSD.
The "escape" from reality that Pilgrim was getting from these novels turned out to be his PTSD and it is hard to argue whether the novels helped Pilgrim or not.
Conclusion
What is a catalyst?
"A catalyst is a person or thing that precipitates an event or change."
(Dictionary)
Appearances in Vonneguts other novels
-Kilgore Trout has appeared in 7 of Vonneguts novels, and plays as a catalyst to the main character in 3 of them.
In most of Vonneguts novels, Kilgore Trout is an unappreciated science fiction author. Trout has great ideas but he can't seem to write them down in a way that makes sense to readers. However Trout has two loyal fans who have all of his works; Eliot Rosewater and Billy Pilgrim (Two more of Vonneguts fictional characters that appear in several of his books).
"One of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best." (Lessing).
Kurt Vonnegut's genius makes Kilgore Trout an effective character even though he has very small speaking roles.
Kilgore Trout has a minor but very vital role in the novel as he acts as a catalyst for the main character Billy Pilgrim and allows Billy to escape reality through his various science fiction novels.
Argument #2
The friendship Trout and Pilgrim develop between each other helps Billy keep his mind occupied and not thing about the war.
Quote #2
Although Pilgrim begins a descent from society, at the same time Trout does provide an inspiration for Pilgrim and he personally gives Billy courage to face the realities of war.
When Billy tells the tralfamadorians about the experiences that were taking place on earth he was expecting them to be baffled by the news. The fact that Billy had the courage to relive his events show that science ficiton novels have given Billy courage that he never had before
Trout helps Billy face the realities of war through friendship along with his novels. It turns out that Billy and Trout had some similarities between each other.
"Billy helped Trout deliver his papers, driving him from house to house in the Cadillac. Billy was the responsible one, finding the houses, checking them off. Trout's mind was blown. He had never met a fan before, and Billy was such an avid fan." (Vonnegut 169).
Quote #1
"Billy expected the Tralfamadorians to be baffled and alarmed by all the wars and other forms of murder on Earth. He expected them to fear that the earthling combination of ferocity and spectacular weaponry might eventually destroy part or maybe all of the innocent universe. Science fiction had led him to expect that" (Vonnegut 115).
Visual
Argument #3
Quote #2
Quote #1
"Life is too noisy. Reading is a quiet time for the soul" (Bennett)
"He himself has no idea how many novels he has written possibly seventy five of the things." (Vonnegut 166)
"A book can carry you anywhere. From a perch in the apple tree in my back yard on Sycamore Street in Ravenna, I traveled the world. I didn't need a passport, a bank vault of money or a plane ticket. All it took was a good book." (Brett)
"Most of Trout's novels, after all, dealt with time warps and extrasensory perception and other unexpected things." (Vonnegut 175)
Trout's novels provide an escape from reality for
Billy Pilgrim.
The amount of books that Trout has written provides Billy an escape from reality because of the substantial amount of books he has written. This helps Billy once again relate to the text and occupies him from reality.
Have you ever read a book that has changed your views on society or life?
These strange novels that Trout writes may be unappealing to the main stream audience, but they directly relate to Pilgrim's life and the struggles he has encountered with his PTSD.