Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Player Piano resembles modern day society in an extraordinary way, regardless of the fact that it was written in 1952. The novel’s dystopian theme is demonstrated by the human dependency on mechanization, which virtually renders the human race useless. Human-operated jobs are no longer necessary, and thus, only the highly intelligent, educated, and wealthy individuals of the upper class are valuable. This results in a significant deterioration in the quality of human life, and the eventual questioning of whether or not any individual has a true purpose. Ideally, the primary objective of an automated society like the one in the novel is to liberate humans and enable them to seek out their life’s purpose. This would give individuals the freedom
…show more content…
However, the resulting societal complications include technology’s enslavement of humans, an ignorant and unwavering trust in computers, the inevitable dehumanization of those individuals reduced to the lower class, and the myth that hard work brings prosperity and prestige. While it seems as if American society, like Vonnegut’s mechanized society in Player Piano, is a technologically advanced utopia in which human life is enhanced by automation, it becomes clear that this reliance on machines is actually a dystopian way of life.
Vonnegut demonstrates the process of humans becoming slaves to technology through the use of machines determining the intelligence, skills, and career of every individual member of society. Not only does technology assist in deciding the usefulness of each human, but it essentially establishes a predetermined and invariable destiny for everyone. This is represented by the quote in the novel: “Those who live by electronics, die by electronics” (Vonnegut 60), which characters like Dr. Paul Proteus begin to realize when they become skeptical about
However, the resulting societal complications include technology’s enslavement of humans, an ignorant and unwavering trust in computers, the inevitable dehumanization of those individuals reduced to the lower class, and the myth that hard work brings prosperity and prestige. While it seems as if American society, like Vonnegut’s mechanized society in Player Piano, is a technologically advanced utopia in which human life is enhanced by automation, it becomes clear that this reliance on machines is actually a dystopian way of life.
Vonnegut demonstrates the process of humans becoming slaves to technology through the use of machines determining the intelligence, skills, and career of every individual member of society. Not only does technology assist in deciding the usefulness of each human, but it essentially establishes a predetermined and invariable destiny for everyone. This is represented by the quote in the novel: “Those who live by electronics, die by electronics” (Vonnegut 60), which characters like Dr. Paul Proteus begin to realize when they become skeptical about