Out of Control

I have just finished reading chapter four of Slaughterhouse Five, and a motif of this book seems to be Billy's lack of control. It shows how he is not able to change the things in his life. One of the most obvious things he has no control of is his time traveling. He ends up in seemingly random parts of his life with no control of where he goes, and for how long he is there. Also, he does not have control of what he does while he is in these different points of his life. He is just living them out the same way he would had he not traveled through time. He can not change what happens and it is almost as if he is viewing his life rather than living it.

Outside of this time traveling state he also has little control about what happens to him. He starts by joining the Three Musketeers, who force him to go on with them even though he would rather give up. He is then powerless to stop Weary from beating him up and later is captured by the Germans and can has to do what they say or be killed. He even voluntarily helps the Germans with a propaganda shot of him being caught by the Germans and when he is on the box car, he cannot lay down because all others will not let him. After the war he has other instances with no control. In his work his boss tells him that he should have people call him Billy instead of William so that they will like him better. He suffers from an uncontrollable urge to cry and will also be unable to prevent himself from falling asleep on the job.

On his wall in his office he has a poem that says "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom always to tell the difference". The problem is that he does not have the wisdom to tell the difference. The prime example of this appears when the sniper is shooting at him on the road. He has given up and is waiting for the shot that will end his life, but then is still pulled out of the way by Weary.

Finally, when he abducted by the Tralfamordians, he shows another instance without control. He uncontrolably grabs the ladder to the ship and does not let go. Once he is on the ship he learns of this beings belief in no free will and that Earth was the only place he had ever heard of the idea before. It seems almost as if Billy is going to a place he better belongs.

How does the idea of control show up in the other books we have read, and also the short stories?