Billy Pilgrim: Fact or Fiction?

Throughout the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, only one question stands out clearly in my mind: Who is Billy Pilgrim?  By considering Vonnegut's novel to be a science fiction, it's easy to categorize Pilgrim as a run-of-the-mill character.  However, I can't let Pilgrim escape interrogation so easily.  Pilgrim is not just a figment of Vonngut's imagination.  Pilgrim is really a means for Vonnegut to articulate the disturbing experiences suffered through during the war. 
Vonnegut is unquestionably a suffererer of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and it is entirely possible that the science fiction adventures of Slaughterhouse-Five are a form of escapism for the real Vonnegut himself.  Perhaps Vonnegut has been highly disturbed to the point of being incapable of living his own life and facing reality.  Vonnegut may find relief in living in a fantasy world.  This allows for the conclusion of Pilgrim being neither fiction nor fact, but really a little mix of both.  It is entirely possible that the life of Billy Pilgrim is an autobiography of Vonnegut, complete with all of the fantasy escapist adventures on which Vonnegut is so dependent.

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