Kurt Vonnegut: Prisoner Of War

It’s rare that a work of religious satire actually promotes faith as a whole, but that is the case in Cat’s Cradle, where Kurt Vonnegut spends more time discussing- or at the very least admitting to- the good things about faith and spirituality than he does criticizing religion. This is not to say that Vonnegut’s work is a glowing endorsement of all Gods and Holy Men- Vonnegut’s criticism of organized religion is harsh and total. All the same, the text does promote a sense of spirituality and connectivity with the world that is never contested. In short, Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle bitterly criticizes the habits and beliefs of organized religion, but stops short of criticizing (and in many ways endorses) the wide variety of good things which can

Complacency is more dangerous than participation in times of war. Through his novel, Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut describes the life of an American spy, Howard W. Campbell Jr: Campbell worked as a radio broadcaster for the German Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda and sent coded messages out to the allies through his radio broadcasts during the war. Authors use devices in writing to further their content. Kurt Vonnegut uses juvenalian satire in Mother Night to prove that through pretending to be something it will eventually lead that person to become the thing they are pretending to be. The portrayal of Howard Campbell as morally self-righteous is evident through Vonnegut’s use of sardonic voice and invective.

Vonnegut use of existentialist detachment can be used to describe the tone of Slaughterhouse-Five. The novel is fragmented into miniscule sections. The majorities of these sections is rather thrilling and contain much action, thus the narrator does not give himself ample room to become emotional regarding the events he is concerning. Therefore, it is difficult to understand what type of emotional meaning the narrator is endeavoring to communicate. The narrator detaches himself from events, then, does not get emotional, consequently the novel is spoken in a straightforward means.

Superman runs into a bathroom and changes into a suit. Vonnegut depicts a man who tries to imagine a war as “heroic” ultimately dying in the same meaningless way as countless other soldiers to illustrate that one cannot escape from traumatic realities. Roland Weary used the illusion of heroism in order to escape from the horrors of war. This is first presented when Vonnegut describes Roland Weary, saying, “His vision of the outside world was limited to what he could see through a narrow slit” (Vonnegut 41) This was an important detail for He had been saving Billy’s life for days,cursing him,kicking him, slapping him, making him move.

“Harrison Bergeron,” written by Kurt Vonnegut at the time of the Cold War, is a short story that takes place in a future world of the year 2081 where the Handicapper General and the law force the beautiful to wear masks, the intelligent to wear earpieces that disrupt their thoughts, and the athletic to wear heavy physical restraints, so that everyone may be equal in the categories of beauty, intelligence, and athleticism; a world where the people “[are] equal in every which way.” (Vonnegut 1) What the many readers of “Harrison Bergeron” seem to misinterpret is that the entire story is an allegory to the political systems of Socialism/Communism and that Vonnegut utilizes symbols in the story that either expose the glaring flaws of left-wing politics or advance the supposedly far-superior ideology of American capitalism. In actuality, Vonnegut’s use of symbols in “Harrison Bergeron,” and the entire story itself is a satire of the common American’s ignorant misunderstandings of left-wing politics at the time of the Cold War. Vonnegut once said at a college commencement speech, “I suggest that you work for a socialist form of government … It isn 't moonbeams to talk of modest plenty for all.

World War II was the deadliest war of all time. Many soldiers who did not die had been captured by their enemies. After World War I, there was an addition to the Geneva Convention, a document created to protect prisoners during war. The document proved crucial and saved countless soldiers from almost certain death. Unfortunately, not all countries participating in the war had signed it.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental disease that develops in those who have experienced a scary or dangerous event and it affects an estimated 6.8% of Americans in their lifetime (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). Post-traumatic stress disorder is also abbreviated as “PTSD.” Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, follows Billy Pilgrim, a World War II soldier, on his adventures through both the war and after the war. Pilgrim believes that he is visited by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore and abducted by them. He also thinks that he is able to “time travel” to different events throughout his own life.

Introduction “No art is possible without a dance with death.” (as cited in Slaughterhouse - Five, 1969, p. 21) “Slaughterhouse – Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” are two works of literature that seem to have nothing in parallel. “Slaughterhouse-Five” is based on the author’s own experiences as a prisoner of war, whereas “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” is derived from the story of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. One might ask what connections can be made when an American classic is compared to a British modern dramatic play. However, after examining the two literary works closely, one discovers that there are striking similarities and common elements between the two writings.

One such argument found throughout many of Vonnegut’s works is the belief in the perversion of the advancements of science to benefit one specific group instead of humanity as a whole. Vonnegut specifically uses the invention of “ice-nine” as his method for delving into the topic. Ice-nine, an ice crystal that can cause all other types of water to immediately turn into ice-nine, was created by Felix Hoenikker for the purpose of clearing out mud for the Marines. A colleague of Dr. Hoenikker, Dr. Breed, states right before the introduction of ice-nine, to the reader, that “new knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become,” this, however, directly contradicts his next main argument which says that “they looked upon him as a sort

In Kurt Vonnegut’s 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions, protagonists Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout are destined to cross paths, and event that leads to the climax of the story, Dwayne’s inevitable mental breakdown. Hoover, a rich businessman in fictional Midland City, has been becoming increasingly mentally unstable since the suicide of his wife. Trout, a nearly unknown author, is invited to Midland City to deliver an address. Midland City becomes the setting upon which their stories diverge. Hoover is driven to madness after reading one of Trout’s stories, which asserts that the reader is the only living being with free will, and all others are robots.

During World War Two, the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, lasted two days, and killed 135,000 people. Billy Pilgrim survives this tragedy, and lives to tell the tale. In the novel Slaughter-house Five, Kurt Vonnegut utilizes the worst firebombing in war history to illustrate how violence can take a dramatic toll on someone that is irreversible and life-changing, often to the point of mental illness. Vonnegut writes that it is “a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet tralfamadore.”