There Is No Greatness in Eternity

Wezly Barnard

Eternity lasts forever. This is a difficult concept to wrap one’s mind around, especially when in reality nobody can experience eternity. It is inevitable that human life has an ending. Vonnegut is not overjoyed with Billy Pilgrim’s Tralfamadorian perspective that humans live forever; because he believes there is great power in death. Vonnegut brings this point home with the mentioning of a few deceased greats. “Robert Kennedy, whose summer home is eight miles from the home I live in all year round, was shot two nights ago. He died last night.” Robert Kennedy is the first name Vonnegut mentions to illustrate his point. This is directly followed by a reference of another influential man. “Martin Luther King was shot a month ago. He died, too.” The fact that Vonnegut brought these two instances up immediately before he introduces the Tralfamadorians’ worldview indirectly shows us why he does not linger on the idea. Vonnegut uses names that have been remembered many years after their death. Although Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King are not living in the physical life anymore their name still live on. This shows that Vonnegut finds peace in the fact that he will not live forever. He will not have to live with his own memories and experiences. “If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Trafalmadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed.” Vonnegut second major argument against this idea is described when he discusses Charles Darwin. “who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements.” This is an example of how things can be accomplished through death. He does not linger and is not overjoyed by this worldview because he understands the importance of death.