Slaughter-House Five's third chapter has Billy Pilgrim in a rather bad state. Pilgrim is beginning to demonstrate the hopelessness of war. He is also has shown no ability to control his time trips and did several jumps in chapter three. On one account he jumped back to working at his Optometrist practice. Pilgrim's condition was summed up by Vonnegut in this brief description, "Now Billy was starting to get worried about it, about his mind in general. He tried to remember how old he was, couldn't. He tried to remember what year it was. He couldn't remember that either," (Vonnegut, 56). This present state is very contradictory to the optimism seen in the Serenity Prayer plaque on his office wall.
The interesting point in the Serenity Prayer that ties into the book is the line saying, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." There is an theme in Slaughterhouse about not being able to control things in life. The Serenity Prayer's words just further explain what is happening to Billy Pilgrim in this point in the novel. Pilgrim is unable to control his time tripping; therefore, life has almost become meaningless. Rather, he needs the serenity to accept that.
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