Billy's outward listlessness was a screen . The listlessness concealed a mind which was fizzing and flashhing thrillingly . It was preparing letters and lectures about the flying saucers, the negligibility of death , and the true nature of death. ( 243)
The quote gives us an overview of what the narrator describes Billy's lifestyle as: All in one moment. As he lays there unconscious and appears braindead to everyone around him his mind is busy chaotically zig-zagging through past, present , and future moments of his life. He even mentions how he revisits some of these moments more than once . Billy is in and out of every moment whenever he closes his eyes, but he never seems to be in his current reality of time. Billy says he has seen his death several times and he "always dies on February 13, 1976"(183) . He gives a brief description during these pages of how he dies. In my mind , I expected more of a detailed description of his death towards the end of the novel, but he failed to mention this moment ever again . Billy keeps living all in one moment even after his death. However, for Billy dead or alive his description of life is all the same to him . He considers one of his happiest moments to be in a " sundrenched snooze in the back of a wagon" (249 ). Billy doesn't seem to mind being dead or alive because life was meaningless to him long before his death (123) .
Q: Why is Billy so accepting and conformed to the way he dies ? is it because of the Tralfamadorian mind set he has acquired ? or is it because of the war and the outlook on life it gave him ?
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