In 1966 in Iowa City, he wrote for the introduction of his latest book, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” To me, this seemed to be a very intelligent, straightforward, and common sense thing to write. But then, Kurt Vonnegut
was a very intelligent, straightforward, and common sense kind of man. Being influenced by his past experiences, yet still using good word choice and correct grammar, he got his point across. With that, I believe that Kurt Vonnegut’s countless great novels and short stories were the product of the many painful events of his life, and that writing is his way of letting out his emotions.
Many of Vonnegut’s novels and short stories were influenced by his experiences as a POW during WWII. Captured in December of 1944, he was taken to Dresden, Germany to work in a slaughterhouse that had been converted into a vitamin factory. In February of 1945, while still being held in captivity, the United States Army and the RAF firebombed the city, causing total devastation. He and his fellow men survived by waiting out the hours in the underground meat lockers. These incidents later led on to the writing on of his most famous books, Slaughterhouse-Five, and at least five other short stories.
“The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were.” On Mother’s Day of 1944, Kurt Vonnegut’s mother committed suicide. This event had a lasting effect of him, and he finally let his feelings out about the experience years later in is work titled Breakfast of Champions. This quote, from the story, can be read in different ways, but by looking into Vonnegut’s life history, you can see that there is more to than meets the eye. I think that in this story, he used the term “sea pirates” to depict his mother, and that he was extremely angry with her for committing suicide, even after so many years had passed. He used this book to exfoliate his anger towards her without having to state even her name.
The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon, which I had read in its entirety the night before.
The Fourteenth Book is entitled, ‘What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?’ It doesn’t take long to read
The Fourteenth Book. It consists of one word and a period. This is it: ‘Nothing.'” With this, I believe that Kurt tried to show the world that the more that we humans do to the world we live upon, the more we hurt our futures.
Another theme that shows up in a lot of Vonnegut’s books is the use of German speaking characters. Some of the reasoning behind this must be because he himself was German-American, and he must have had some sort of attachment to his ancestry, even though he fought in Europe during WWII against the Nazis. The People he created in his books, such as Howard W. Campbell and the Noth family, were speaking German because he was never allowed to as a child. Although both of his parents spoke fluent German, he was not taught because of the anti-German sentiment of the times. I think that one of his main reasons for having some of his characters speak German, though, was that it would give him a personal excuse to connect with his ancestors on a whole new level, by learning the German language.
In almost everything that I have read by Kurt Vonnegut, I have found a time where he is just straight-up trying to help you out. He is constantly trying to inform us of something about ourselves, or the world we live upon, that he knows is true. Such is the quote at the beginning of this paper, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” It is almost a kind of warning to society itself. It’s letting people know that if we hide behind a mask, people will not know you or maybe even like you for who you really are inside, and so in that sense we must be careful.
Mr. Vonnegut also enjoys using the same characters in different publications. Some of these, such as Eliot Rosewater appear in multiple novels by Vonnegut, such as God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, andHocus Pocus. Other characters, such as Howard W. Campbell, play large roles in his books, yet play small parts in short stories. One character, the infamous Kilgore Trout, appears as a main character in several books, such as God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Breakfast of Champions, Jailbird, and Timequake, and plays a big part in a lot of Vonnegut’s writing. Trout, who was originally created to resemble Vonnegut’s colleague, Theodore Sturgeon, supposedly became Kurt’s alter-ego. I believe he first created the character to poke fun at his friend, but eventually he began to sympathize with him, later turned into a sort of “friend on paper.” I believe that he continued to use Kilgore Trout after his first appearance because he enjoyed making the likeness of his friend act however he felt necessary, and he also could make him do anything that he himself could not.
I believe that Kurt Vonnegut also used a few somewhat confusing ideas in his books to make the reader have to catch up and try and figure out what he meant. Like in the novel, Cats Cradle, he used Bokoninism to make readers try and understand where the followers of the religion were coming from when they stated their morals. Also, in his story, Mother Night, he used the switching of Helga and Remi Noth in Campbell’s relationship to confuse the character, which in turn confuses the reader and makes them go back and figure out exactly what happened.
In Vonnegut’s stories, he used many reoccurring themes and characters, and he put them all together and made them into many great novels and short stories. I believe that is what makes him so great, and in the future, I will now know when one of these is being used.
Sources:
Vonnegut, Kurt. A Man Without A Country. Seven Stories Press, 1973.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s Cradle. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.
