IrinaDuh Mr.OwainPhillips English10A 27November2013 EscapisminSlaughterhouseFiveandCatch22 War has always been something nobody wanted to cause.

Billy Pilgrim, from Slaughterhousefive byKurtVonnegut, neverdesiredtobeinoneand,likeYossarianfrom Catch22, he was taken to it anyway. This conflict carried them to find a imaginary or physical place to escape from where they were, like women, pleasure or fun. They are escapists,escapingeverydaylifethroughdaydreaming,fantasy,andentertaining. Billy travels through time to different situations to escape his reality. He travels to bettermoments, to thefuture, to thepast, and to hisdreams.He hadthepowertoescape his everyday to turn it into an adventure, like a movie, that he watched all over again, severaltimes. Hewas always in his own world: He, dreamedon,andtraveledintimeand soforth (KurtVonnegut 235).Everymomentofpainwasbalancedwithanotheroneofjoy, thatsomehow,madehimescapefromhisrealitytoabetterplace. Yossarian, like Billy, travels through time using flashes of future or pastevents. He remembersthe past and foresees thefuture. Whenheis intheplane, and hispartnerhas been cut in half by the enemy in war, he travels momentarily to one moment in which he sees his woman waving from the distance. After that, he returns to reality to heal his partner, or staynext to him forhis death(MikeNichols,Catch22).Therethereaderclearly

appreciatesthatheonlytravelstothemomentshewouldliketosee,orwherehewouldlike tobe. Another resource Billy uses to escape war is women, mainly because of their absence in battle,and their significance of shelter and protection.Wecansee this desire from Billy when the narrator talks abouthis mother, daughterand wife, when he travels to moments shared with them. Billy travels in time to when he heard himself proposing marriage to her and he begged her totakethe diamond ring andbehis companion for life and this shows clearly that he missed her. With her he found love (Vonnegut 107). Humor also is seen with the use of the word begged as said in a journal: Vonnegut exploits it shrewdly, it says, as he employs pure fatalism and sense ofhumor (Susan Lardner). This means that even if Vonnegut deals with fatalist topics like love, war and misery,hedoessoinamockingway,inwhichthereaderunderstandsitbetter. Yossarian also interacts oftenwith women, recurringto severalplacesandthoughts to do so. There is a scene where he is at a whorehouse with his friends, talking of business, and at the same time relaxing and having a good time with women (Mike Nichols,Catch22).Farbeyondtemporarypleasure,Yossarianseeshimselfattractedtoan Italian mistress he saw in the streets, showing he seeks romance,protectionandshelter fromhertoo. Everybodyneeds torunaway. Waris something thattakeshumanstothelimitand, sometimes,theirmindsprefer toignoreorslightlychangethesituation.YossarianandBilly both suffers init, but both found a wayto be happy, either in physical or mentalplaceson theirown.Theirownworldsenabledthemtosurvive.

WorksCited Vonnegut,Kurt.SlaughterhouseFive.TradePaperbacked.NewYork:Dial,2007.Print.

Lardner,Susan."DRESDEN."TheNewYorker(1969):n.pag.TheNewYorker.Cond Nast.Web.26Nov.2013.

Catch22.Dir.MikeNichols.Perf.AlanArkin.ParamountPictures,1970.DVD.