vonnegut in billy

In reading the novel Slaughterhouse-five, I couldnt help but feel that Billy was Vonnegut even though he interjects himself into the story at times, saying that he was that soldier who did certain things. I felt as though Vonnegut was Billy, he had written himself into this alternate world as a way to help him look back at the past, but to not become stuck there. Billy was unstuck in time and jumped from future to present to past, and so Vonnegut in creating Billy and giving him this ability in a sense gave himself the same ability. There are also many correlations between Vonnegut and Billy throughout the novel. Such as them both using the non-fiction novel to deal with the trauma that they experienced in the war. Not only do they use the science fiction novel but they both create their own alternate realities. It could be said that the book is Vonneguts alternate reality, and for Billy, his is Tralfamadore. Vonnegut and Billy also have trouble talking about the war, and remembering things about the war. Vonnegut himself says that when he sat down to write the book he had trouble remembering events that occurred. Billy himself after the war doesn't talk about it and avoids it in conversation when his wife Valencia asks him about it. The similarities between the two are daunting and really jump out to the reader. This causes the novel to have a somewhat autobiographical affect even though it is clearly fiction.