Kurt Vonnegut

Billy Pilgrim is born in Ilium, New York in 1922 to an optometrist and his wife. He does well in high school and goes to optometry school. Soon afterwards, he is drafted into WWII where he becomes a chaplain’s assistant to avoid fighting. Shortly before Billy is sent to Europe, his father is killed while hunting. Upon his arrival, Billy is sent to the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and taken prisoner by Germans almost as soon as he got there. Soon before being captured, he experiences his entire…

In the short story, “Harrison Bergerson”, the author, Vonnegut, shows how a perfectly equal society in every aspect can be dangerous through the use of characterization, tone, and conflict. Throughout the short story, Vonnegut uses several techniques such as physical descriptions on how society has affected them. In the quote, “They were burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot”(38)., Vonnegut stresses how the ballerinas were equal due to their handicaps. The author also describes…

Samuel Johnson once stated, “It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.” The Giver is about a community that experiences no problems because common struggles have been purposely removed from existence. “Harrison Bergeron” is about the world and how the government forced the people to be perfectly equal. This is actually worse than before because if everybody is equal than no one can be unique. The quote…

Equality 7-2521 is taught from his “first breath” that “ everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from one is evil” (Anthem 85). He is brainwashed by the society to believe the “world council is the body of all truth”(Anthem 2). These ideas are planted into his mind at the beginning of his existence and haunt him throughout his life. Eventually, Equality pursues individuality and finds the truth about his society. Suffering in collectivist thinking transforms Equality…

In “The Colour out of Space” the first-person narrator arrives at a place described as “West Arkham” where he discovers five acres desolated and covered in ash and dust. There he asks an old man nearby, Ammi Pierce, what had happened there. From then on the narrator retells what Ammi tells him. Back in his earlier days there lived a family, the Gardners, on the farm there and Ammi was a close friend of the father, Nahum. Then someday a meteor fell onto their property close to their well and was…

Ge Shen Dec 10,2017 ENGL1010 Sara Austin Pink Pop-Surrealism and Image Distortion Pop-surrealism is often viewed as 'lowbrow' art. It utilizes various subcultures, including “classic cartoons, 60's TV sitcoms...rock music, pulp art, soft porn, comic books, sci-fi [and]Japanese anime” (Essak 1), to comment upon or make fun of various socio-political issues or individuals. This art form is often “assigned circa 1994” (Essak 1), which is the year that prominent lowbrow artist Robert Williams…

“Tradition is our security. And when our mind is secure, it is in decay,” laments Jiddu Krishnamurti wisely. While tradition is a solace to many, as Krishnamurti puts it, once outdated, it can result in the deterioration of society. And worse, perhaps, are the consequences faced by those who protest antiquated values. Set in a stereotypical American town and initially written with a joyful tone, “The Lottery” explores such paradoxical views on tradition shifting to a dark and sinister tone…

Question: How do composers explore and represent concepts that provide us insight into the human experience? The producer Steven Spielberg in “Empire of the Sun” and author Luong Ung in “First they killed my father” explore and represent concepts of the loss of innocence, resilience and exploitation through specific camera shots and direct dialogue. These factors combine to provide the audience/ reader significant insight into the human experience particularly related to children in war.…

002091004 Young’s Thoughts on the Development of the Traumatic Memory Allen Young examines the history of mental trauma through memory in this ridiculously incoherent but incredibly interesting essay. The development of the ideas of a traumatic memory comes from surgical sources from the late 1800s to Young’s own essay about post-traumatic stress disorder in 1995. This wide range of documents hides the fact that they are mostly researchers situated in the West, not to mention the obvious…

Imagine a world where everyone happens to be perfect, everyone happens to be the same cookie cutter image, and everyone happens to be nice. Pretty boring huh. Now let's arrive in the real world where nobody happens to be perfect, everyone happens to be different, and only a few happen to be not corrupt. The story of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain contains countless amounts of corrupt aspects in people’s lives. Huckleberry Finn unveils the story of a boy, named Huck, and his journey down the…