In Relation to Slaughterhouse Five

I had a difficult time grasping the relationships in Slaughterhouse Five, beyond the fact that very few relationships seemed to develop, those that occurred remained vague. I suppose though that was the first indication that the relationships in the book were unhealthy. Billy remained apathetic towards most characters-- particularly emphasized by stating "So it goes." after every single death. However, I saw it as an indication that to form a relationship capable of helping or hurting someone, one must have a stable relationship with oneself. Billy remains damaged after the war, this manifests as his time traveling ways and dreamt up encounters, which prevents him from forming external relationships and even being a unified entity.
After reading the anti-war narrative, I was amazed at how Vonnegut depicted the effects of the traumas of war and how abstractly we could understand a distant and removed protagonist. Billy, to me, was harming his relationship with himself, even though he was coping with it the only way he possibly could. Although the relationships in the novel between characters seemed relatively neutral, maybe slightly damaging since there was apathy and removal on Billy's end, it was Billy in relation to himself that carried a more poignant message. Can one even have a strong relationship with another when you are in dissonance with yourself?

In Relation to Beloved

After reading Beloved by Toni Morrison I reflected a lot on the mother-daughter relationships in the novel, which seemed to indicate you can love someone too much. The parasitic relationship between Beloved and Sethe illuminated to me that a love with all the best intentions, could still prove harmful. A relationship such as theirs weakens the individuals, taking and taking with out giving anything back. Specifically I noted that possessiveness proved detrimental to the relationships of Beloved. The repeated instances of the phrases “She is mine” and “You are mine” though intended to display dedication and love, made the recipient a possession rather than a human. A relationship centered on possession can initialize dominant and submissive roles in the relationship—as seen with Beloved and Sethe. The novel is depicted through magical realism and therefore the results of possessiveness and then dominance are illustrated as such. Sethe’s draining and withering away and Beloved’s gorging and vitality both manifest physically, providing a more tangible evidence to the effects of too much love turn to possession.

            I keep returning to the notion that it’s not the relationships built on the worst pretences or with unfortunate people that create the most harmful environments. But it’s rather the ones so filled with love and passion that create a storm that can deliver the most damage.