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How Did Kurt Vonnegut Change

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November 11th, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana, produced one of the most famous living writers of his time. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. grew up in a prosperous family, with his father, Kurt Sr. being a prominent architect in Indianapolis (Allen, A Brief Biography of Kurt Vonnegut). However, Vonnegut's family financial situation changed drastically due to prohibition shutting down a successful family brewery on his maternal side and later the Great Depression destroying his fathers architecture business (anb.org). This sent Kurt Sr. into a life of alcoholism, prescription drug addiction, and relinquishing his wife (Allen, A Brief Biography of Kurt Vonnegut). Kurt Jr. was the youngest of three, later stating his sister, Alice, influenced his writing (Hayman et al). Resulting from the Vonneguts' loss of wealth during the stock market crash and Great Depression, Kurt Jr. was sent to public school in 3rd grade. He eventually attended the public Shortridge High School where he began his journey in writing through the school newspaper. Vonnegut left his beloved hometown after high school to attend Cornell University, where he was also …show more content…

This real occurrence is the event Jailbird is essentially centered around, making it possible to give themes of political corruption, the history of liberal idealisms failure, fear of communism and socialism. In Jailbird, the novel refers to the main character and his acquaintances being democrats, mocking republican “stupidity and vengefulness” (Vonnegut 119). This resembles Kurt Vonnegut's personal left-winged pacifist views. Important personal political and social views by an author are frequent in works that can affectively call attention to these messages. The shaping event of Walter's life referencing Watergate is an opportunity to influence readers to consider the authors personal

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