Immaculate Approach To Satire In Kurt Vonnegut's

Vonnegut exercised a minimal and comical style of writing to communicate his views against war. His experience in high school and

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut could easily be imagined as a car. The car itself is a 1995 Dodge Caravan, made up of mismatched parts and one can tell that it has been through a lot and is barely scraping by. There are many parts to Slaughterhouse-Five (just like a car), which can be confusing if one does not take the time to carefully read over the novel. The driving force behind Slaughterhouse-Five can be identified as the novel’s author, Kurt Vonnegut, as Vonnegut pushes the story further and directs the storyline at his own pace.

“Harrison Bergeron, “a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., takes place in a totalitarian society where everyone is equal through handicaps forced on them by the government. Harrison, the main character, attempts to save the broken society, but ultimately fails to change anything. Vonnegut uses Harrison as a Christ figure in his novel ironically, to make a statement about our own society today and how we are blind to many political things happening around us. These ideas can be explored through analyzing Thomas Foster’s novel How to Read Literature like a Professor.

In the story, Harrison Bergeron, one learns that the author, Kurt Vonnegut, does not like the way society is. He does not like how people judge one another because one is not as attractive, or smarter, or funnier. He

’”(Vonnegut 55-56).

It is expected for arguments to arise when writing about controversial topics. Many times the meaning of a book is not as obvious as the author intended, which may lead to problems. Other times, books are challenged because they contain sexual or inappropriate material. When Kurt Vonnegut released Slaughterhouse-Five critics were quick to judge his peculiar way of writing. Although Kurt Vonnegut’s book Slaughterhouse-Five was oftentimes misunderstood, interpreted as inappropriate, and judged for the peculiar point of view, critics seem to appreciate and accept one aspect of it: the structure of the book.

Hattenhauer is the associate professor of American Literature at Arizona State University West. In his above article, Hattenhauer discusses the use of satire in Vonnegut's story, Harrison Bergeron as used to portray the concept of true equality as being absurd and unachievable.

    Cat's Cradle is, "Vonnegut's most highly praised novel. Filled with humor and unforgettable characters, this apocalyptic story tells of Earth's ultimate end, and presents a vision of the future that is both darkly fantastic and funny, as Vonnegut weaves a satirical commentary on modern man and his madness" (Barnes and Noble n.pag).  In Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut uses satire as a vehicle for threatened self-destruction when he designs the government of San Lorenzo.  In addition, the Bokonists practice of Boko-maru, and if the world is going to end in total self destruction and ruin, then people will die, no matter how good people are and what religion people believe.

Use the guided analysis exercises within the lesson as a model for this part of the assignment.

Sex is another element Vonnegut satirizes. Perhaps not to caution, but to reveal the twisted ways in which our current society treats sex. No doubt seen in every form of media and in every war, this theme can be found in Slaughterhouse-five and

Hoenikker can be seen as representational of our entire race. He is a scientist and inventor on a search for knowledge, just as we are a race on a search for knowledge. It is apparent that this search often yields negative results, as in the child and stove example. Though Hoenikker may be responsible for the atom bomb and ice-nine, he emerges not as a monster or villain but as a giant child (Kennard 1). Hoenikker was actually largely based on a man Kurt Vonnegut knew named Irving Langmuir:

A book where everything is backwards, where everything stirs away from reality and does not make a whole lot of sense when it comes to relativity. The main character Arthur Dent is being targeted by these unprepossessing aliens to demolish his house to make a intergalactic bypass, when moments later they are going to destroy the earth. All Arthur can worry about is his house when the earth is going to end. In reality a normal human would be worried about surviving. A smart computer built by Deep thought detects that the answer to the ultimate question is Forty-Two, now all of the humans are insanely muddled as to why the answer is Forty-Two. Mice are now ruling over humans when we have experimented with them for years, the mice are the rulers over the humans and are experimenting on them. Satire is used in many ways throughout this book, but there are only a few that really express how today's society is ruled over.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote during the postmodern literary period which breaks free from many ideas created in the modern period and describes the literature that follows World War two. This period is characterised with the technology becoming part of life,paradox,and fragmentation. Authors also hold true the idea that all stories have already been told and works of this era are new methods of telling them.(Klages np) These techniques are used throughout the short stories of Vonnegut’s “Welcome to the Monkey House” and influence can be seen due to his past in the military which may be seen through his storytelling.

Another example of Vonnegut's discouraging views is when the inherent fears of urban individuals are collectively focused on a fictitious entity in an incident involving Kilgore Trout. "He looked over his shoulder, perceived that they were being followed...The next thing that he knew, he was on his hands and knees on a handball court underneath the Queensboro Bridge...His money was gone. His parcels were scattered around him" (75). The police find him and transport him to the station for questioning. They ask about the culprits. Trouts response is, " 'For all I know the car may have been occupied by intelligent gas from Pluto...Trout said this so innocently, but his comment turned out to be the first epidemic of mind-poisoning" (76). When the reporters got a hold of the information they caused a city-wide panic . Everyone was in fear of this so called Pluto Gang, when in fact they were just a bad case of gossip. "So New Yorkers, who had so many nameless terrors, were easily taught

In Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut uses satire in the topics of war, aliens, fate and the reasons for life itself. In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, the author uses many literary devices to bring across his point including black humor, irony, wit and sarcasm. He mainly uses satire throughout the book. Satire is a literary device found in works of literature that uses irony and humor to mock social convention, another work of art, or anything its author thinks ridiculous to make a point.