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Barbara Pilgrim is Billy’s daughter, who is burdened with caring for Billy after her mother dies and Billy loses his mind. While Barbara loves her father, some of her interactions with him are not particularly kind. She can’t comprehend her father’s strange and unhinged behavior, and she resents that she’s been forced to take responsibility for his well-being, so she often reacts to his antics with annoyance rather than sympathy. However, Billy’s behavior is understandably disturbing. He almost allows himself to freeze to death in his own home due to an issue with the heating system, shows little emotion at the news of his wife’s death, and is obsessed with sharing his experiences of being abducted by aliens and traveling through time.
Although she may not be able to articulate it, Barbara is indirectly a victim of WWII. It has effectively destroyed her father’s mind, meaning she must take on the emotional burden of caring for her father at a young age. Additionally, Billy’s inability to communicate with her honestly or sanely about his experiences—instead hyper-fixating on what Barbara perceives to be delusions (the Tralfamadorians, time travel, etc.)—is frustrating and makes it difficult for her to truly empathize with him. Barbara being forced to take on a leadership position in her family due to her father’s breakdown is yet another example of how the trauma of war never goes away and is passed down in one form or another to future generations.
