A Critical Analysis Of Epicac By Vonnegut

Vonnegut subtly presents a biographical sketch of the eponymous character EPICAC in his short story EPICAC where he attributes human traits to a computer which is far from being a human. It is the writer’s careful choosing of diction and the pouring forth of human emotions upon the subject that transforms EPICAC from the state of a mere computer to that of a man. Vonnegut is successful in creating his character to the extent that the non-human entity at times appears to be the ‘most human of all the characters’ present in the story. The story could also be read as a social satire on the present state of humanity. The underlying question is ‘what it is to be human?’ EPICAC, the fictional non-human character is an answer to this very question which strikes at the core of human existence. …show more content…
The very word ‘friend’ suggests how the narrator considered EPICAC his equal. Other such words include noble, great, brilliant, gentleman etc. Also, the use of the personal pronoun ‘he’ instead of ‘it’ to refer to the computer resounds the attitude of the narrator. When the narrator talks about the untimely death of EPICAC, he says “God rest his soul” (Vonnegut 1). Here ‘soul’ is conventionally used to talk about a human being instead of some technical terms. Finally, at the end of the story where EPICAC bids farewell to the human world, he writes a suicide note, “Good luck, my friend. Treat our Pat well”(Vonnegut 5). It is when EPICAC voluntarily withholds himself from life that he assumes a superhuman