Kurt Vonnegut

In the U.S. year 2081, there was finally equality, or was there equality? Everyone was treated the same, no one was smarter than the other, no one was more beautiful or handsome than the other, and the people who had talents were horrible, and there was absolutely no one more graceful than the other. The truth was, there was no equality, no one was truly equal, the world wasn't fair, there was no happiness. Beautiful people wore hideous masks, the most graceful wore bags that were heavy which…

something I can say about very few books. The complexity of Slaughterhouse-Five resided in the inability or unwillingness of Vonnegut to settle on a single theme or mode of discourse It took me until the end of the first chapter to discover what was going on; I even thought I had picked up the author’s edition by mistake. However, I soon realized that this was the intent of Vonnegut. The multiple themes all worked to discredit each other, but in doing so, it made me see that they could all…

Vonnegut and O’Brien tackle the Cold War as a new era in warfare, in which battles were not fought truly fought over land acquisition or the survival of a people, against an opposing force, but against an enemy that represents our enemy. We fight our enemy’s ally because we do not agree with their way of life or the people that agree with it because they believe the same thing about us. Vonnegut showcases the game of chess played between two opposites for no prize but survival using the least…

Slaughterhouse-Five is a novel full of motifs, ironies, black humor, as well as themes. The themes seen throughout the novel is sight, destruction of war, and lack of free will. Going more in depth, sight is a theme since the novel talks about being able to see clearly. During the novel, the destruction of war is mentioned quite a few times. Free will is the more obvious theme of the three and seen frequently throughout the entire novel. These three themes are seen in both the poem, A Man…

birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in” (Page 1). Each of these changes made to an individual was so that every individual was equal. Vonnegut uses indirect characterization to create sympathy for George and Hazel by…

Throughout module 5, I found one character to be quite intriguing: Harrison Bergeron in “Harrison Bergeron”. Prior to reading, I presumed the story would be told completely all about a man named Harrison, but instead this story’s setting is a future dystopian society depicting total egalitarianism. At the heart of the story, Harrison is the protagonist that is only included in a quarter of the story. Nevertheless, Harrison is the most important character in the entire piece because he is so…

Why Can’t A Society Be Equal Can one society ever really be truly equal with so many different kinds of people? In the story “Harrison Bergeron” it is the year 2081 and the society is finally out of the Dark Ages. Everyone is supposedly equal. No one is stronger, faster, or more beautiful, or so they thought. Equal means being the same in quantity, size, degree, or value. So think again; can society ever really be equal with so many different kinds of people. A society will never be equal; the…

everyday reality when he couldn’t handle what the day entailed. Billy then comes across a magazine “which was called Midnight Pussycats, promised that [Montana Wildhack] was wearing a cement overcoat under thirty fathoms of saltwater in San Pedro bay” (Vonnegut 204). This missing porn star was a perfect piece to bring together Billy’s layout of his fabricated life, weaving Montana into his make believe world where he is escaping to cope. Allowing Billy to detach himself from the harsh reality…

A Formalist critic is someone who analyze and study features of a text that is repeated or a symbol. In Slaughterhouse V, Vonnegut’s repetition of “blue and ivory” represents loneliness, sterility, cold, and death to show the impact of war on soldiers. Blue ivory symbolizes loneliness and sterile. Billy was working on a letter and was typing it on an old typewriter in a rumpus room. Billy’s heat source was broken, the house temperature was below fifty degrees, and he wasn't wearing warm clothes…

Chapter 1: After reading the first chapter I can tell that I 'm going to enjoy this book. The book is set up in an interesting fashion. I like how each story is told in a segment. The author’s tone in the first chapter is interesting. He is talking in a calm tone. This juxtaposes the title of the book because I would think that Slaughterhouse Five would entail a book with extreme violence. He 's telling background about his life in an interesting way, he finds ways to tell the reader specific…