Science Fiction

Throughout Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut creates an environment shaped by elements of science fiction. These elements, notably time travel and alien contact, make the novel "a science fiction that deals with the topic of free will versus fatalism," (Isaacs 408). Throughout the novel Billy remains "unstuck in time," seeing his whole life flash before his eyes in a random order of events (Vonnegut 15). This random order forces the reader to examine the events in the novel the same way that a Tralfamadorian would, adding to the element of science fiction. Because of the creative freedom associated with the science fiction genre, Vonnegut uses it to express a theme of fatalism in the novel and "as a way of making those ideas [presented] more palatable," (Lundquist 616).…