The Role Of Dehumanization In Kilgore's 'Trout'

Vonnegut uses indirect characterization to create sympathy for George and Hazel, the title character’s parents’. George and Hazel are very similar characters in the way that they both cannot hold a thought for more than a few seconds. However, Hazel can only hold a thought for a few seconds because she has “perfectly average intelligence,” which is a good thing in this society. George should be able to hold a thought for more then a few seconds but he was given a radio “transmitter [that] would send out a sharp noise” to keep George from taking unfair advantage of his brain. George and Hazel cannot fully understand anything; they cannot or emotionally process anything.

Kurt Vonnegut creates the characters within “Harrison Bergeron” using structured and basic sentences. The situation of equality in this story affects the dialogue between the couple George and Hazel. The sentences are short and simple which makes them seem almost robotic to the reader.

The viewpoint of the world that the narrator has, completely alters as certain events take place throughout the story. His outlook on nature transforms into a wholly different standpoint as the story progresses. As his tale begins, the narrator sees himself as a tough guy or “bad character”. He believes he is invincible. There is nobody as cool as he

Vonnegut's writing style throughout the novel is very flip, light, and sarcastic. The narrator's observations and the events occurring during the novel reflect a dark view

dehumanized because of his lack of food, so when he has an abundance of it, he becomes similar

I interpreted each if those motifs as a reflection on society both then and in modern times. The use of names paints a very bleak idea of individuality, and how little it means. So many of the situations in the books created almost a sense of loneliness, where it was clear that almost anyone could have been replaced without an effect to the story. They were flat, and often times reminded my of the way Vonnegut wrote in Slaughterhouse Five, where characters lacked dimension and depth. Guy has depth, a sort of introspective thought process that isn't shown in the others in the story with an exclusion of Clarisse. I personally viewed it to be a bit of critic of the Suburban American lifestyle, that creates a sort of act that everyone follows

Throughout his career, Kurt Vonnegut has used writing as a tool to convey penetrating messages and ominous warnings about our society. He skillfully combines vivid imagery with a distinctly satirical and anecdotal style to explore complex issues such as religion and war. Two of his most well known, and most gripping, novels that embody this subtle talent are Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. Both books represent Vonnegut’s genius for manipulating fiction to reveal glaring, disturbing and occasionally redemptive truths about human nature. On the surface, Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are dramatically different novels, each with its own characters, symbols,

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

Vonnegut successfully makes point, that trying to make a perfect world, where all things are equal, is impossible and will cause trouble. In the 1960’s equal rights were a big goal to achieve. People aiming towards equal rights for blacks, women, and even homosexuals. Vonnegut uses

Kurt Vonnegut’s unique story “Harrison Bergeron,” displays a theme which is a warning about the dangers of equality, which is equality is a hindrance to an individual’s success and society’s success, but this hindrance is ironically, unequal. In the story, Harrison and his bride are arrested for their unwillingness and inability to stay within the bounds of equality enforced by the Handicapper General. Equality hinders the success of an individual like the weights hinder the beauty and grace of the ballerinas in the story. Equality doesn’t promote everyone to be equally better, but to be unequally worse. Handicaps are no use in ensuring equality, because one’s strengths will always shine through, such as Harrison’s strength and wit, or the

It is a perfect example because the story takes place in an environment of integral conformity and describes a scene of pure deviance where Vonnegut’s disseminated strong messages. By analyzing Vonnegut’s short story with the help of both “The social animal” by Eliott Aronson and “Wayward Puritans” by Kai T. Erikson we will point all the wrong aspects of perfect conformity in a first paragraph. And, in a second paragraph, we will discuss more about the importance of deviance by analyzing the last scene.

The root of discrimination founds on the lack of similarities. Everyone is different in some ways, but dehumanization allows exploitation of the differences for self interest and satisfaction. Human history is littered with tainted footprints of prejudice and discrimination, and they all contain one thing in common: dehumanization.Dehumanization is a psychological process that makes individuals and groups seem to not deserve moral consideration by viewing them as less than human. All human have fundamental rights that should not be violated, and innocent people should not be subjects to violence and brutality. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, excessive violence and ethnic conflicts question moralities. Hosseini is able to reflect how these real-world issues are revolved around dehumanization. The novel highlights genocide, violence, and violation of human rights, and most importantly, how these terrible deeds originates from one psychological process: Dehumanization. Dehumanization is the cause of violence and discrimination because it asserts superiority, assuages guilt, and denies individuality; ultimately, it is the cause of human rights violations.

Vonnegut’s symbolic and satirical representation of humans as robots in his novel: Breakfast of Champions is representative of the authors interpretation of world events and conflicting nature of human beings. The renowned author often hits on significant and worrisome themes such as destruction of the planet and overpopulation. His unique and unparallel style includes outrageous and often unrealistic chain of event that are obviously symbolic and relevant to the story as well as the author’s attitude on a particular subject matter. For instance in describing when Kilgore Trout writes his stories, he does not save them

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

Analysis Essay “Maybe there is a beast … what I mean is.. maybe it’s only us”(Golding 89). This connects to Kohlberg’s Theory because it shows some of the boys as being savages and like if the boys were never properly educated. The Kohlberg Theory is important to the novel because Golding included children at all different levels of moral development , in order to show how society is the same way.