PTSD In Slaughterhouse Five Or The Children's Crusade
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) causes a painful recollection of a past harrowing event that haunts victims for the rest of their lives and often causes extreme anxiety, depression, and in some cases, drug abuse and suicide. The suicide rates have increased effectually among soldiers, with about twenty-eight veterans killing themselves each day (Rosenshield). Many veterans are diagnosed with PTSD, and are forced to live with it for the rest of their lives. It is hard to understand the shift in a person before and after serving in war because the change is not physical, but mental. Though a person may seem perfectly normal, their mental make-up is morphed in a way that changes them forever. As time progresses, medical advances increase. Less and less soldiers are being injured and killed on the battlefield, however the damage being done to soldiers is not controlled due to PTSD. Until the 1980’s, medical professionals did not recognize PTSD as an illness. This being said, many veterans traumatized in the Vietnam war did not get the recognition they needed from psychiatric doctors and suffered alone. This rings true for both World Wars as well,
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Vonnegut’s portrayal of significant events in Billy’s timeline then propose the following question: Does war affect the daily lives of veterans as prominently as represented in Billy Pilgrim’s character? Though Billy’s case seems quite extreme and controversial, nobody can be truly sure how much of Billy’s symptoms (such as trips to Tralfamadore) ring true for real, every day veterans. Billy creates an alternative world to escape. Furthermore, the work provides a serious message to its readers about the consequences of war and the toll it takes on the human
Vonnegut’s portrayal of significant events in Billy’s timeline then propose the following question: Does war affect the daily lives of veterans as prominently as represented in Billy Pilgrim’s character? Though Billy’s case seems quite extreme and controversial, nobody can be truly sure how much of Billy’s symptoms (such as trips to Tralfamadore) ring true for real, every day veterans. Billy creates an alternative world to escape. Furthermore, the work provides a serious message to its readers about the consequences of war and the toll it takes on the human