Past, Present, and Future

I have liked the author's way of writing this far because it's kind of pessimistic but not boring. The following passage is an example of a pessimistic thing Vonnegut says: "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future" (P. 60 Vonnegut). Though what he said is true, that Billy couldn't change anything, but it still gives a depressive tone to the story. What is depressive of this passage is that Billy could not even change the future because everything is already decided for him, no matter what he does, he will always end up as it is decided for him. What I see as a reader is that Billy Pilgrim didn't influence in the decisions that were made for his life: that he was going to be an optometrist was as decided as the fact that he was going to be born. I guess here is where the depressive tone comes from; from the fact that he knows that he is just a marionette of fate.

It is clear that Billy has sleeping disorders because in the day when he is examining patients falls asleep in the middle of the appointment, but when he tries to sleep in a comfortable environment, he needs the help of a machine that makes him fall asleep. We know that this was caused by post-traumatic stress, but post-traumatic stress doesn't only affect your sleep, it can cause severe mental disorders so it makes me question the veracity of the stories he tells.