Looking At Things from One Point Or The Other

In Slaughter House Five, Billy pilgrim meets the Tralfamadorians and learns from them a new way to interpret and view life. He gets to understand that there are things in life that he cant change and that he doesnt have any any power over. He even gets to believe he doesnt have power over anything, not even his own decisions. That everything is happening, has already happened and will happen at the same time. He even learns a prayer in which he asks god to "grant him the power to accept the things he cannot change." So its just as Epictetus sugests it, one has to choose the way in which one sees and interprets life. "Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well. "So, he just suggests to "accept what you cannot change" and to actually enjoy it and see it in a positive way, and the way to do it is by actually convincing oneself that is what you want.
Both works talk about life perspective. The way we look at things, people and life. They try to tell us how to interpret each one and how to handle them in a way that will make us happy or atleast that we dont suffer about them. Vonnegut found a way to get council from all the pain he had from war, he accepted a belief of no free will and of destiny. He got himself atached to people that died and suffered for it but then found a way to ease the pain. Epictetus, instead, suggests a way in which one can avoid the suffering from the begining but one would probably avoid the bond and friendship as well, so you never gain it but then you cant loose it. Its just self persevernce and keeping a sane mind.