Suicide In Kurt Vonnegut's Under The Clock

1031 Words5 Pages

As a schizophrenic person, Vonnegut went through a lot. That much that in the middle of the way he thought about suicide. He wanted to kill himself, but not because he was tired of the situation that he was in, but because he believed that was the reason that he was there. “My life had been spiraling toward this place and moment, pulled closer and closer to the vortex, and now I was there. I cheerfully drew myself a nice hot tube, found the razor blades they hadn’t hidden very well and a gallon jug of Clorox. I wasn’t unhappy or bitter, I was humming tunes from ‘My Fair Lady.’ I thought it would be lots of fun to see if I really could kill myself…” (Vonnegut 172).Unlike a lot of people Vonnegut didn’t want to end his misery, he was curious …show more content…

He was so happy when the first time he was able to type at the age of eleven. He never thought about suicide, instead he was interested to write books and show and express his feelings. A lot of people were touched by his writing and his book Under the Eye of the Clock changed the view of a lot of people about disable people. As Hampl wrote in her New York Times Book Review of Nolan “One of the abiding pleasures of the book, in fact, is that while the reader is never allowed to forget Joseph's extreme disability and physical dependence, the story reads like an adventure, not a meditation. It is busy, active--and young even when it is wise.” He let the reader to think and understand that just because someone has a disability doesn’t mean that they’re stupid or has no intelligence. He wants people to understand that a lot of disable people are physically disable, but their brain is still work. They are still able to see the world around them and analyze …show more content…

Vonnegut hates to take medicines for his illness. He didn’t trust those medicines and even stop eating food or drinking his tea while he was in the hospital because he understood there’s medicine in his food for controlling his behavior. In the other hand, Nolan looked forward for his medicine so he can write. This shows another different between people with different type of mental illness. One of them is aware of the fact that he needs the drugs so he can function and stay as normal as possible, while the other one hates it because he thought the doctors wanted to poison him. Even though now years past Vonnegut still is not a big fan of medicine. “What I really hate about medication is that it helps me, which means I’m not nearly as perfect as I wish I were.” He was hoping to heal his illness by will power, but after a while he realized it’s impossible and he needs medicine. He understood that doesn’t matter how strong you are or how much you are trying to get better, in some situations without medicine it’s impossible to get better. So he put his guard away and stared to take his medicines and started to get

Open Document