Chapter 6: The Knowledge of One’s Death

          I have always wondered when, where, and how I would take my last breath. However, after thinking it through and reading this chapter of Slaughterhouse Five, the strain and grief it would bring me would be more of a curse rather than a privilege or gift. Billy Pilgrim knows when, where, and how he is going to “die” or as he thinks of it, “… it is time for me to be dead for a little while- and then live again.” I feel as if it would be terrifying to know that your existence of soon going to end. However, I feel as if Vonnegut is trying to tell us that we should not fear death and that is just the start of life again. The passage right after Billy is shot “so it goes,” “So Billy experiences death for a while. It is simply violet light and a hum. There isn’t anybody else there. Not even Billy Pilgrim is there” (Vonnegut 143). I feel, we as humans are afraid of death, because we do not understand it and there is no possible way to. Many people fear what it may feel like, will it hurt? Am I going to feel it? However, there are others who fear more what happens to them after they are dead. Many people are still unsure how we are alive and living on this plant, so we certainly have no clue what it is like to crease to live. As humans we want to know and understand things, but there is only one problem with death, no one has ever lived to tell us about it.