"But among them was this poor Earthling, and his head was encased in a steel sphere which he could never take off... he was also strapped to a steel lattice which was bolted to a flatcar on rails, and there was no way he could turn his head or touch the pipe. The far end of the pipe rested on a bi-pod which was also bolted to the flatcar. All Billy could see was the little dot at the end of the pipe. He didn't know he was on a flatcar, didn't even know there was anything peculiar about his situation...Whatever poor Billy saw through the pipe, he had no choice but to say to himself, 'That's life.'" (Vonnegut 115).
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| "That's life." |
This extended metaphor, which describes a poor Earthling's life compared to the all-seeing Tramalfadorians', reminds me of one of my favorite things: roller coasters. When one thinks about it, roller coasters are actually pretty pointless. Little humans strap themselves onto small metal cars, and fully aware of the coming terrors, are zoomed up and down, up and down. Vonnegut uses this metaphor of a flatcar zooming on a track while the human, blind and ignorant, is thrashed through the up and down moments of life. Humans are conscious of only one moment at a time. Therefore, however great or horrible that moment is, the moment dictates a person's thoughts, feelings, and actions, upon which humans are given the free will to decide the outcome of the next moment.
Thus, the Tramalfadorians used the metaphor of being strapped on a flatcar (and being blind to the structured moments of the universe) to represent humans' uncontrollable lives. As Earthlings, we can only see that one "little dot" of our life at a time. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of only looking at the positive moments and completely ignoring the negative times. That's called denial. And with denial of the past, humans can only lead themselves into more downhill moments, such as ignoring the massacre of Dresden while the rest of the Allies rejoiced in victory and continue to do so today.
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