Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and His Ways of Writing
Through his books Kurt Vonnegut Jr. uses slightly crude humor and an almost unrealistic, lampooning setting to poke fun at how mankind is, and how mankind thinks and acts. He has a unique way of setting up a book to show some morals of life. He shows what man has done wrong, and it shows how things done to fix the past are worst.
Vonnegut’s father was a very reputable in economics and socially. His father then married a woman of the same status, which gave the Vonnegut Jr. a good head start in life (Litz, 753). Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on November 11, 1922. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana (Byers, 25). After he was born his family’s status in the world started to tumble. The Vonneguts owned a brewery, and then prohibition became a big deal, and that put a big economic dent in the family. Then along side that came the Great Depression, which did not help them out economically. Then on top of that, their social status was hindered because of anti German feelings after WWI (Kurt Vonnegut, 1).
At first Vonnegut disposed American entry into WWII, but once he witnessed the savage bombing of Pearl Harbor he abruptly changed his mind (Litz, 755). In 1943 he joined the army. Because he joined the army his mom got depressed ( Litz, 755). In may of 1944 Vonnegut’s mother committed suicide. Then Kurt was taken prisoner during the “Battle of the Bulge”. While imprisoned he witnessed the bombing of Dresden, one of the worst bombings of the entire war. Then when all was said and done he was awarded a Purple Hear, which is little compensation for the horrors he witnessed (“Kurt Vonnegut”, 1).
Some of the reasons he began writing came from his mother and part from his career choice throughout life. When Vonnegut was younger his mom took some writing classes, and to earn a little extra cash she would send her works in. Another influence on his writing was that he spent most of his life writing for newspapers. During college and high school he wrote for the school newspapers, and then after graduating he wrote some for the local paper (Litz, 754).
In 1952 he wrote his first book titled Player Piano. Because of his use of fantasy in the book he was classified as a Science Fiction writer, which was not a very respectable type of writing style. So he gained little respect for this book (Byers, 26). Then from 1956 to 1965 he wrote the books The Sirens of Titan, Cats Cradle, and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, which entitled him to a little more respect. Then he taught for a short while at Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he learned some new techniques to writing (“Kurt Vonnegut”, 2). Using the new techniques he learned, Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five. Because he wrote it during the time when many Americans were protesting against American involvement in Vietnam and because his book was about anti war, he gained much respect from the book. After that he wrote five more books and a play. He wrote Breakfast of Champions, Slapstick, Jailbird, Galapagos, and Palm Sunday. Then he wrote the play, Happy Birthday, Wanda June (“Kurt Vonnegut”, 2)
Vonnegut likes to use a little bit humorous setting and style of writing to prove a point about mankind that he is trying to get across. As Richard Hauck said, “He is a true rarity among modern American novelists- a moralist deploying traditional satire, iconoclastic grim humor, and a lucid view of what is wrong with man.” (Hauck, 465). Vonnegut combines humorous fiction and what most people think is morally right to create a unique novel (Hauck, 465). According to Vonnegut himself, “My books are essentially mosaics made up of a whole bunch of tiny chips and each chip is a joke.” (Grossman, 467). An example from Player Piano said by Peter Reed, “The social satire, the contemporary relevance, the humor, and the touch of yearning combine in Player Piano with fast pace and plenty of action. The combination is not always comfortable however. At times Player Piano is serious to the point of being solemn, elsewhere it can be breezily lampooning. Yet it is in part the tension between derision and humane concern which leads to the novels strength.” (Reed, 25). There is satisfaction every page, with a surprise, a moral, or a laugh of some kind (Grossman, 467).
Vonnegut uses the common issues of America, such as political corruption, environmental pollution, censorship, and militarism, to be popular in American society’s view. He depicts modern society and makes fun of human condition (Byers, 25-26). He tries to target the future leaders in politics and military to hopefully get them to learn some morals (Hauck, 465). Along with dislikes towards current politics, Vonnegut dislikes modern scientific technology, so he either belittles science or does not mention it at all (Grossman, 466). As said by Peter Reed, “Looking back over the six novels [Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Cat’s Cradle, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and Slaughterhouse-Five] we might be tempted to see them as answering more questions, explaining more of life, or rendering the world more knowable than they do. Vonnegut places considerable emphasis on the fact that we know very little about a great deal.” (Reed, 204).
Vonnegut uses a certain unique style with his characters. He often includes himself in his stories, whether it be the main character or even just a small part character. Usually his characters are looking for order or meaning in a disorderly and meaningless universe. The characters often have a sort of lampooning life, So many things to wrong that it just does not seem logical (Byers, 25).
Vonnegut also uses a particular theme on his characters. As in normal life his characters strive to become important and recognized, but history always seems to intervene (Uphaus, 469). Then when characters do reach this goal, they then realize that the upper class is not really what they want. So they do the reverse and try to become accepted as a lower class citizen. Then they usually realize that it too is not desirable. So they basically give up on life and no longer fear death (Grossman, 466).
There are some examples of Vonnegut’s theme in Player Piano. Throughout the story Vonnegut depicts current events and problems, but in a futuristic setting. The novel pokes fun of today’s American society by using great exaggeration in a futuristic setting. A summary of Player Piano as said by Peter Reed is, “the protagonist, other characters, and even the author himself, seem to indulge the notion that, the present being grim and the future holding little promise, the past must somehow have been better.” So basically the past is much better then the horrible things we do to fix it, even though the problem just gets worse, or a new problem is created (Reed, 24-25).
There are some more examples of theme in The Sirens of Titan (Byers, 26). Once again the story is set in a futuristic setting, and there is a man searching for meaning in the universe (Reed, 58). In the story humans are trying to answer all the “whys” in life, but Vonnegut emphasizes that the answers can not be answered through science and exploration, but can be found in man himself (Reed, 58).
Some more examples of Vonnegut’s theme come from his novel Slaughterhouse-Five. His main character, Billy Pilgram starts off as a respectable man who is engaged to a likewise respectable woman, who just happens to also belong to a rich family. He then joins the war, and while in the army he realizes a lot of the problems in the world (Vonnegut, 23). Through out the war and his life he has an almost lampooning amount of tragedy. His wife dies and he witnesses a lot of other close friends dying and he witnesses so much horror contributed by the war (Vonnegut, 130). He then finally gives up on life and just does not care if he gets left behind, but no one will let him just die (Vonnegut, 104). Then after the war is finally over he is on a plane and it crashes and strikes him with great wisdom, but everyone around him takes it as a mental problem (Vonnegut, 24). With this mental disability which is really wisdom, he is no longer afraid of death at all (Vonnegut, 24).
Then some more examples of Vonnegut’s style come from Slaughterhouse-Five. One of Vonnegut’s styles is to include himself secretly in his books. In Vonnegut’s life he suffers many tragic losses and sees a lot of death, and that directly ties with Billy’s life. In the book mental illness is a rather large part in Billy’s life, and the same is true with Vonnegut’s own life, with his mom’s suicide. He uses the setting of war to get to the audience, he tries to show them the tragedy of war, because he was directly connected to war, and realized for him self how bad it was, and he wants every one to realize the same things he does.
Through all of Vonnegut’s works America should realize some morals about life, by showing America’s problems in a humorous way that keeps the reader’s attention. Readers should learn that life’s questions are not hard, you just have to look hard in yourself to find them, and not use science and war to get things answered.