Throughout history, man has shown a great tendency to gravitate towards decisions that end in destruction, especially if the destruction will not directly affect himself. Occurences such as war declarations do not necessarily have to be decided on by the masses, but only a single man’s will. By that man’s will, millions of innocent lives can be lost, his own usually not included. Kurt Vonnegut is a fantastic author that uses satire in order to draw attention and ridicule the flaws of mankind, most of which end in destruction and chaos of some sort. In two of his novels, Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five, damage and destruction of millions is determined by what can potentially be a single man’s decision.…
On a superficial level, the root of the problem is the drive to compete and the drive to compare oneself to others. A political solution for this “compare and compete” problem can be theorized. The first potential solution that comes to mind is to find a way to equal the playing field until there becomes no need for comparison with others because we are all equal, and through this equality brings the end of competition, for what is achievable by one, is achievable by all. One way to accomplish this would be for the political power (i.e. the government) at hand to invent a means that impeded on any one individual’s advantage in society, whether it be intelligence, beauty, creativity, etc.. In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”,…
On November 11th, 1922, Edith Vonnegut gave birth to Kurt Vonnegut Junior in Indianapolis, Indiana (“Vonnegut, Kurt, An Introduction” 1). This location would remain integrated into Kurt’s life despite his incredible life journeys; he often referred to this city as a symbol of American values in many of his novels. Before the Great Depression, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. had grown up wealthy. Kurt’s mother was the daughter of a wealthy brewer and his father became a famed architect; however, during the Great Depression, their fortune took a turn for the worst. Kurt’s father’s firm filed for bankruptcy and their luck concluded forcing the Vonneguts to sell their home.…
One Flew Over the Cuckoo ’s Nest: A Literary Analysis In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, readers are thrust into the unknown and sometimes terrifying world of mental patients at a psych ward. In the novel, narrator Chief Bromden describes the events that happen in his day to day life after a new ward patient, Randle McMurphy, is admitted.…
So, in “Mein Kampf,” Speiegelman is not only dealing with “Maus” overpowering and intimidating him. But, as hinted in my analysis, he is also dealing with a mid-life crisis and the loss of memory as he enters old age. He faces these problems by going into his mind, searching for these memories and reminiscing about them. It’s an interesting dynamic, the fact that he goes into his own mind to find the memories. Then he proceeds to relive or commiserate them inside his head instead of psychically.…
Chasing after perfection by working against nature can be a hazard. Aylmer proves that merely fixating on achieving perfection, and trying to enhance or alter nature can lead to misfortune. People must understand that perfection is intangible; therefore, it cannot be created. Attempting to create or achieve perfection is useless. It is a waste of time and a waste of that which is pure, beautiful, unique, and natural.…
How to Write with Style Everyone has his or her own writing style, and some writing styles are considerably more distinct than others; however, anyone’s writing style can and should be improved over time. There really is no one specific or perfect way to write because everyone has different opinions on what is well written and what is poorly written, so it is important to alter one’s style so as to capture the attention of very different audiences. Kurt Vonnegut, an amazingly talented author from the 20th century, wrote an essay entitled “How to Write with Style” which gives excellent techniques on how to better anyone’s writing style. Each of his techniques has an explanation as to why they should be used, and he uses each of them in his essay.…
Every author has their own unique writing style. Kurt Vonnegut’s just so happens to be very effective. The unique pairing of black humor, social satire, and science fiction make the stories of Kurt Vonnegut both intriguing and effective. His way of satirizing contemporary society using themes such as war, sex, and death makes his stories bluntly honest. To verify the assumption made, three novels were read.…
Jon Krakauer writes his book “Into the Wild” in response to the similarities in background that Krakauer and McCandless had. His his Author’s Note, Krakauer writes that he had an urge to write more about McCandless’ story given the “unsettling parallels” the two seemed to have with the events of their lives (ii). The author seems to see a little of himself within McCandless, a young man with admiration of the wilderness. Another reason why Krakauer wrote the book was that the American people felt in touch with the tragic story of McCandless. In the Author’s Note, the author writes that his article for Outside Magazine on Chris generated the most mail than any other article that was published by the magazine.…
Society Imagine a world where everything was “perfect”. People would all be equal, and everyone would be “happy”. Sounds awesome right? Wrong.…
In Kurt Vonnegut’s article, he explains why you should examine your writing style with the idea of improving it. In order to do so, Vonnegut suggest the following seven step process: 1. Finding a subject that you care about, 2. Do not ramble, 3. Keeping it simple, 4.…
Plot is certainly the most imperative component of most literary works, especially short stories. With the help of an excellent plot, a phenomenal story is made. This was achieved with the short story, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”. Kurt Vonnegut mastered the elements of the prominent narrative arc. Vonnegut intrigues the audience with an exceptional exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.…
Kurt Vonnegut was a famous author who had experienced different life impacting events in his lifetime. He was born and raised in America but enlisted in the Army and fought in World War II. He had to deal with problems in his childhood that in a way carried on to his adult life. While he was in the Army, he went to war and he had experienced traumatic events. When going through traumatic events, or seeing those around you suffer, you do not forget those moments.…
Analysis of Hitler’s Mein Kampf With over 60 million lives lost, World War Two was known as the most destructive war in history. What could cause such a catastrophic disaster to occur? The blame for this war lies heavily on the infamous Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis. His influence on Germany was immense but he started off as an unknown political figure. Through the release of Mein Kampf, Hitler was able to spread his radical views to the rest of Germany and lead them down a path of destruction.…
In celebration of his 50th birthday, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book to himself as a present which is mentioned by Vonnegut in the preface of the book. The name of this book is Breakfast of Champions. This book is primarily about the meeting between a car dealer named Dwayne Hoover and an old writer named Kilgore Trout. This meeting leads to Dwayne going insane. At first, this book may seem to be a mix of irrelevant information with no exact chronological order.…