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Welcome To The Monkey House Analysis

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Kurt Vonnegut is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. He is famously known for his unique blend for satire and science fiction, which was rarely attempted. Vonnegut creates warped worlds that were unique and intriguing in his short stories. He suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder perhaps due to his time as a prisoner of war. During Vonnegut’s time as prisoner of war, he crushed vitamins in an underground meat locker; surprisingly, this saved him from the Allied Forces’ bombing of Dresden. His condition influenced his writing heavily, which can be seen from the dystopias he creates. “Welcome to the Monkey House” and “Harrison Bergeron” are similar short stories by Vonnegut that discredit total equality and are …show more content…

“Welcome to the Monkey House” takes place in a future society in which the world is overpopulated, almost everyone is unemployed due to machines taking over, ethical suicide clinics are established to keep the population down, and everyone is forced to take pills that ridden the pleasure of sex. Society becomes uneducated about sex and is portrayed as evil. Those who don’t take the pills and hence enjoy sex are referred to as “nothingheads”, and "bombed out of their skulls with the sex madness that came from taking nothing" (33). The government takes something that is embedded in human nature, and makes it seem as if it is “madness” and immoral. By taking away sexuality, the government is also taking away individuality, similar to “Harrison Bergeron”. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the futuristic government takes equality to a whole new level: citizens are forced to be completely equal in all aspects. Equality is done by adding physical impediments to the smart, talented, strong, and beautiful, thus making everyone equal. The extreme equality dumbs-down society. Both stories exemplifies what literal equality and political correctness does: dumbs down society and kills any spark of uniqueness. When

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