Essays on Kurt Vonnegut

Book Censorship

Despite the fact that the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution provides legal protection for the freedom of religion, speech and press, modern American history as well as its democratic façade have been compromised greatly by numerous cases of book censorship and bans, particularly in educational institutions. Thereby, the case of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is only a drop in the ocean of shameful censorship policies. As Vonnegut’s seminal work was banned in schools across the United States and as the Drake School Board set several books on fire, the prominent American writer whose books are ...

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in his novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” talks about several themes in relation to war. He uses meta-fiction and writing about writing as a major style in which to relay his message. The memories of the war keep getting off his mind. He wants to write the story but in other times he feels that it is not necessary. Vonnegut applies meta-fiction in his writing in order to bring the various effects of war: psychological and physical. Through the use of various characters in his work, Vonnegut is able to depict clearly the situation during the war. It is ...

Kurt Vonnegut was a prolific American author, who wrote the novel “Slaughterhouse Five” (1969). The novel is one of the arguments against war that exists even today. The reason for this is because the novel deals with the effects of war on a person when they return home. This is because for many people it is hard to truly leave the battlefield behind due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As PSTD was not a recognizable diagnosis at the time of Vonnegut’s writing, he used Billy’s inability to connect with reality as a representation of the potential effect ...

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Phillip K. Dick) – Air Raid (John Varley). ‘We Can Remember It for You Wholesale’ is a futuristic short story written by Phillip K. Dick, centered on the concept of memory manipulation. It takes on the undiscovered fields of new age science. The concepts involved in the short story are so complex and underdeveloped even in this age and time. But still the author immaculately and ostentatiously nails his narrative. In the same sense, ‘Air Raid’ written by John Varley, seems to be the perfect match for the pairing. Both these short stories ...

The qualities that humans possess make them special from other living forms or objects. Yet, the studied stories suggest that there is a man – made form of existence that resembles humans in terms of reasoning, cognizing or even feeling human emotions, embodied into robots that possess artificial intelligence. The studied stories, “Tomorrow is Waiting” (Holli Mintzer), “EPICAC” (Kurt Vonnegut), “Robbie” (Isaac Asimov) or “Birth of A Robot” (Abigail Tucker) address the difference between humans and robots only to suggest that the difference is only a human – built concept. The robots presented in these stories show human features, such as ...

The narrator in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is unnamed and represents the collective voice of the town. Critics have not established conclusively whether the narrator is male or female. The narrator may be someone who knows Emily intimately, perhaps even her secret, such as Tobe, her servant. This is because of a number of factors. For example, the narrator calls Emily by the name “Miss Emily,” a title which may imply servant-hood. Although the narrator conceals themselves behind the joint pronoun “we,” he/she may have had personal perspectives and opinions that he/she spreads to the ...

In Welcome to the Monkey House, the author uses symbolism and metaphor to depict the future of life where the aspirations for equality are evidenced in acomical way. The author employs characters that achieve the objectives of sexual growth and transition into more responsible roles. The story Welcome to the Monkey House illustrates the contrast of life to shape the concept of coming of age. The social manifestation of life in the story empowers the fictional government, the symbol of coming of age, development and ability to progress in a manner that allows the automation of everything practical (Kurt, p. ...

Introduction

The community shapes the life of its members by promoting certain activities within the society. The essay describes how the following short stories applies in a real life setting: “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut, “Truth or Consequences” and the “Arts of Contact Zone” by Mary Pratt. The thesis statement is behaviors that develop into an immoral society. A short by Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” bases it claims towards the pursuit of Righteousness. The author states that, “for an individual to stay happy, he or she must ...

Harrison Bergeron is a story written by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut’s story is a warning to the world about the quest of equality, which is spreading all round in many nations with America on the lead. The story shows the reader how the equality issue can have negative impacts on people’s individuality, and the society. The story revolves around the protagonist, Harrison Bergeron who is an archetypical symbol that represents defiance, and individuality. He is used to represent the people who will stand up, and protest against cruel laws imposed by the state on equality, and encourage others to protest ...

Kurt Vonnegut and His World Views

Kurt Vonnegut's interview on NPR's The Infinite Mind provided a sweeping insight into the life and world-view of the author. This interview was completed towards the end of Vonnegut's life and followed the publication of his latest book, A Man Without a Country. His world view, although a bit jaded, still offers a glimmer of optimism. Vonnegut argues that the only way humanity will be able to survive is through the teams created across nations and social groups. In the West, we must move beyond traditional family units, which serve to isolate and create friction between groups, and open up our lives to ...

War is always a complicated issue, particularly with regards to wars being fought in nations not directly involved in the conflict. Public opinion of their nation entering dramatic conflicts – risking the lives of their citizens and killing others – depends largely on cultural factors that can shift and change depending on history and context. While World War II was a largely well-supported conflict, given the attack on Pearl Harbor and the undisputed evil of the Nazis, the Vietnam War had a decidedly more complex reaction. These anxieties are also reflected in literature; Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five capitalizes on the Vietnam War tension experienced ...

Growing up in an anti-German society would be difficult for any patriotic American with German heritage. In the prologue to his book, Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut talked about the fall of his family’s pride in their culture and traditions, and how it left him without a sense of belonging (8). The history of his blood was hushed and dismissed, and he had a blank slate to fill with the skewed histories and realities of his books. His parents raised him in ignorance of all things German, things they had always loved and had always been a part of their lives (Vonnegut 7). ...

Writing as a process is often fraught with uncertainty and struggle; even the best writers have to start from somewhere. It is often an arduous climb for a writer to create a great work of literature, or even a passable one. Every author, whether successful or not, must endure a roughly similar process of learning how to write, and how to write well. In Ann Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts,” Frederick Douglass’ “Learning to Read and Write,” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “How to Write with Style,” the various trials and tribulations of getting a piece of writing from the mind to the page are described ...

The topic that I have chosen is the social independence and prejudice. It is focused on addressing some of the factors that actually cause influence over the social status of people in any place. I have chosen the topic with concentration with the context within the text by Kurt Vonnegut and the film related to V for Vendetta. Taking the literature class has been the basis of the influence of the choice of the two sources of information (Dulin, 2007 pr. 7). That is using a text as well as the film. It is in relation to the content that ...

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story "Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical science fiction tale about the dark side of a perfect, ideal American society. It is set in the future, and it is centered on the fact that constitutional Amendments were making everyone equal. All of the individuals of this time are made equal by mechanism which brings them down to the normality level in the story, which is really considered to be below-average in strength intelligence, strength, and aptitude. These individuals are deprived of their individuality. They are not even permitted to reach what is considered to be their complete potential. ...

Harrison Bergeron written by Kurt Vonnegut is a dystopian short story published in 1961. The story talks about a handicap system which suppresses everyone to equal intelligence. The equality in this story is brought by the 211, 212 and 213th amendment of the constitution. However, as much as the government claims that people are to be equal in the society, they are required to bear with the handicap system and follow its rules to the latter. No one should be more attractive than the other, no one should be more intelligent than the other and all people should have the same ...

The short stories Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. focus on the themes of equality, although at different times and settings.

Girl talks about inequality from the author’s point of view, which can be assumed to be based on her experience, while Harrison Bergeron talks about how the author perceives – from a third person point of view – an egalitarian world in the future where Americans’ perception of equality is achieved

Summary

Girl was set in the second half of the 20th century, somewhere in the Caribbean presumably. It is about a dialogue between a mother and daughter ...

Analysis of The Report on the Barnhouse Effect by Kurt Vonnegut

The story The Report on the Barnhouse Effect was written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1950. Only five years from the World War II passed, the Cold War began recently, and many scientists on both sides were working on developing and creation of a powerful weapon, which could have destroyed the Earth. It was the time of many scientific discoveries and technical progress. It was the time when scientists were considered almost as wizards. The story created by Vonnegut depicts the moments of life of professor Barnhouse, the professor with unusual skills. His skills were accidentally discovered during the World ...

Satirical fiction has a proud tradition in American literature. Beginning with the winking cynicism of Mark Twain, this tradition was picked up by several American authors in the twentieth century, but none more bitingly than Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Growing up as the son of German-Americans during a time (the aftermath of World War I and then World War II) when many Americans harbored ill will toward them, and with his family suffering the privations of the Great Depression, Vonnegut saw in a matter of a couple of decades most of the very worst that humanity can inflict on one another. In 1969, he ...