CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

A. Introduction

How far is too far? We human beings are naturally curious and we constantly crave for
more, but to what extent are we going to take this craving and curiosity and when do we
draw the line and say that ‘this is enough’?

We look back and we see pieces of the past that we are trying to uncover, going back
millions of years. We can trace back the start of civilization, how our people came to be;
and how we have changed and evolved. From the simple caveman who used to gather
berries for food, who then discovered fire for cooking raw food and then developed tools
such as weapons and axes in order to facilitate their hunting which was basically done
to make their lives easier. This is one of the principles of development, finding ways in
order to make difficult tasks easier and make our lives more comfortable. It is doubtful
that someone would develop an invention designed to make our lives harder, much less
find the people to use that said invention.

We seek comfort and relaxation; we would not work if it was not required. We seek
every way possible to achieve maximum comfort and avoid stress, and problems. Living
conditions in the past are best put to be horrible if you were not fortunate enough to be
born with a silver spoon in your mouth. If you were not born in an affluent family, you
were likely to be a factory worker, a slave, a miner and so on. You were likely to be
abused, both verbally and physically, being constantly pushed to work to your death just
so you could earn money, which was not even enough to provide for yourself. These
were occupations that were hazardous which put the lives of the workers at risk. They
develop various symptoms and acquire various diseases because of the harsh working
conditions. Working in coal mines led to respiratory problems, being a construction
worker put you at risk of falling from the sites, working in factories would also lead to the
development of various respiratory illnesses.

With the development of various diseases, the spread of those said diseases was only
but a matter of time. With the promise of moving to urban areas leading to a better life

1
for your family, a sudden shift in the geographic distribution of people began. People
from the country side would travel towards the cities thinking that they could earn more
and provide a better for their family. With this train of thought, they all clustered in the
cities filling every inch and hole of the concrete jungle. This happened to the point that
there was barely any breathing room left; alleyways were cluttered with people, all living
spaces were filled to the point where residing in that location was almost unbearable.
With all these people working in hazardous locations and acquiring various symptoms
and illnesses, it was no shock to see an epidemic take place. One of the most notable
events would have to be the spread of cholera. Several thousands were afflicted with
the condition, continually spreading like wildfire in a jungle. But we see here the
importance of health to people. We constantly attempt to cure and provide aid to those
that ail us. As in the case of cholera, the source was found and the cure to the ailment
immediately identified. If anything seeks to harm us, we find ways in order to defend
ourselves and protect ourselves from it, one way or another. While this may not
immediately happen, it will in due time.

One of the most prevalent evidences of our want to be rid of illnesses and death would
be the cure for polio. It was prevalent disease that affected several people, which lead
to various complications and eventually death. Through various researches and studies
conducted, eventually a cure for polio was found, and the disease was eradicated. This
counted as one of man’s greatest victories against disease and illness. But why is it that
we seek to prolong our lives and rid ourselves of death? Time and time again we
develop cures and treatments for diseases that continuously etch at our backs. Death is
constantly behind pursuing us but man finds a way to place obstacles and slow it down.
But to what extent are we supposed to prolong this chase? Is death not a part of life?
Which brings into question one of the other reasons for development, which is to
prolong our lives; develop vaccines and cures that would remedy those that ail us. But
to what extent are we supposed to live? When do we decide to die?

As we progress we notice a change in people - rather a change in their mindset. They

no longer have the same goal of survival in comparison to our Neanderthal
counterparts, we continuously seek more and more comfort. We aim towards sky lofts,

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condominiums, luxury cars, and so on. We want to live longer, and longer, and if
possible, remove death from existence as well.

A concern arises from the prolongation life; if everyone lives and no one dies, how will
everything else survive? We live on a world that has a delicate balance, a system of
homeostasis, which requires death in order to facilitate the arrival of life, but if you
remove death from the equation, something else is bound to pay the price in order to try
and maintain the balance of the ecosystem.

In light of this, there have been several implementations of birth control in our current
society, implementing the use of contraceptives such as condoms, intra-uterine devices,
birth control pills and so on. One of the prevalent laws that were implemented to control
population was China’s one child policy, where families were only allowed to have one
child. This was done in order to resolve the growing population of China, which they
would not be able to accommodate. This in itself is interesting because we can see the
government intervening in the lives of people, in a sense, they are controlling people in
such a way that the people are unaware of it. The government may be after the best
interesting of the masses, but how is it assured that what they decide is the best for the
people? Should a person not be in agreeance with a newly implemented law, he may be
deemed a deviant, and possibly, even a criminal.

Another interesting issue that is being brought to light as we progress further is the use
of technology in our lives; we increasingly depend on technology, and develop tools,
computers in particular, in order to do difficult tasks which people previously used to do.
The computer started out doing relatively simple computations, but eventually
progressed into more complex tasks. Crunching numbers, involving thousands, perhaps
even millions of values, we continue to build a dependence on these technological
devices in order to perform tasks that we are not able to. But we also have to remember
that even these machines have their limit and we cannot expect them to always perform
as they should. Which raises the questions, just how much are we supposed to rely on
technology and its development?

I myself have questioned these issues in various cases. Seeing a relative suffer through
her disease, and having everyone pray for her health and safety, it made me wonder,

3
what was the point of death if we do not wish for it? We go to hospitals to treat our
ailments in hopes of getting better, and in turn, avoid death. But death has always been
a constant, it is always there, and yet we constantly turn our heads away from it. We are
aware that death is the end of life, and we all eventually reach that stage, so why is it
that we are afraid of knowing what is to come? We constantly seek new ways in order to
‘cheat’ death. We put in mechanical parts into our body when some of our organs do not
function as they should, we take in vaccines to avoid the diseases that nature has
spread, and man develops interventions to treat symptoms of ailments that we
experience. It is ironic how we seek to change the constant death into something that
optional.

A certain experience that comes to mind when it comes to technology was during high
school, when our teacher told us that we would not have calculators with us every time
so we should learn how to compute with our heads not our calculators. Ironically, we
have built-in calculators in our phones which we constantly have on our person; but
what truly is ironic is that even with calculators in our phones, they still have a limit to
what they can do. I have found myself in situations where I kept inputting data into my
phone thinking that it would be able to compute everything, only to find out that I could
only put in so much variables. Which leads me to another experience I have had with
computers; I would look for a citation website just to avoid manually citing articles
because of the hassle, and I was praised by my friends because of how fast I was in
citing articles. I wondered if it was wrong to take credit for what a machine did and it
boggled me for a while. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I merely utilized my
resources at hand in order to facilitate my work, which is one of the main reasons of
why we are constantly developing everything around us.

Life, death, immortality, overpopulation, technology, dependence; several issues that

come to mind when we think of the world today. Development of new vaccines, serums,
surgical implants, contraceptives, supercomputers, and so on, are but some of the
advances that we have experienced in our current world. But we have yet to face the
concern of overpopulation, prolongation of life, and the ethics of death. Just how do we
decide when we have lived long enough and how do we decide how we should die?

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Should the government promote euthanasia, mass killings, and ethical suicides? Just to
what extent are we going to avoid death try to achieve immortality? What comes after
death is uncertain, and perhaps that is why we try to stay in a familiar area, which we
find in or time being alive. But it still is a boggling question, how far is too far?

To what extent should man continue to develop?

What change caused the acceptance of suicide as a norm in society?

What problems would arise in a world where disease and illness have been eradicated?

C. Objectives of the Study

To identify what extent of development of technology and medical knowledge

would pose a threat to humanity.

To identify the problems that would arise in a world where disease and illness are
no longer a concern.

To identify the change that has caused the acceptance of suicide as a norm in
the society depicted by Kurt Vonnegut in his stories.

D. Significance of the study

This study will benefit the general public because it will provide an insight
regarding the issues of overpopulation, and government control.

This will also benefit the elderly who are wary of their health and are worried
about death.

Limitations of the study

The study will only include 5 short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, namely ‘2BR02B’,
‘Deer in the Works’, ‘Welcome to the Monkey House’, ‘EPICAC’, and ‘Tomorrow and
tomorrow and tomorrow’.

The study will only focus on issues regarding the ethics of death, advancement in
technology and health, government control, and population control.

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 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

This chapter presents the related literature on the works of Kurt Vonnegut.

Related Literature

Susan Farrell’s book extensively tackled the literary work of Kurt Vonnegut in her
book Critical Companion to Kurt Vonnegut: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work.
The following are the commentaries on the stories the researchers sourced from her
material: First, 2BR02B is a dystopian story was much like the two other short stories of
Vonnegut, the “Welcome to the Monkey House” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and
Tomorrow”. Set on a future that is grossly overpopulated Earth just after aging, being
stricken with disease, and death has just been conquered, the people were encouraged
to end their own lives on their own hands. Second, the remarkable story of French poet
Edmond Rostand, the Cyrano de Bergerac is retold but in a more laid-back form in the
works of EPICAC as the play is based on the actual French playwright in the 17th
century to which it was named after. The said story has been adapted into numerous
well-known versions. However, of all these, Vonnegut’s romantic comedy piece
brilliantly grasped and made use of the tongue-tied, unromantic character of the
narrator. The twist is that in EPICAC, a computer represents the main character.
Ironically, a computer is a soulless machine but it is the one that yields out the romantic
poetry to win the heart of his fellow mathematician, Pat Kilgallen. Purposely designed to
be an instrument of war, EPICAC defied this by being interested in projecting love over
chaos. He was a machine that appears to be more of a human than the ones who
actually programmed him. However, EPICAC’s recognition of his machine-like nature
was what ruined him. The moment the narrator was not able to counter the claim of the
computer that he was smarter and a better poetry writer, he tells EPICAC that women
are not bound to love machines, specifically computers, because of “fate”–a
“predetermined and inevitable destiny”. This caused EPICAC to short-circuit himself. He
drowned in the idea that he was a prisoner of a destiny that is predetermined and thus,
will never win the heart of the woman of his dreams. EPICAC’s sacrifice for the
narrator’s happiness at the end along with the 500 poems he has gifted showed that

6
even though he was a mere machine, he defied it and became one with the greatest
humanity possible. Third, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a story that aims
to hint and predict the unintended side effects of the new technology which at first
promises a better life condition for humans. It depicts of a severely overpopulated and
resource-depleted future where humans find hard to thrive. Fourth, Deer in the Works is
a story that is of a send-up of large, bureaucratic corporations that treat its workers as
parts of machines rather than persons. In this story, Vonnegut anticipates President
Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation in 1961. The said speech warned of
the dangers made by the “total influence” of the United States “military-industrial
complex”. In this story, the author emphasized the unnaturalness of life where a world
full of machinery has replaced the norms in the natural world. Fourth and lastly,
Welcome to the Monkey House is a science fiction dystopian literary piece. The Earth is
grossly overpopulated and human beings are being treated as unimportant disposable
creatures. However, the biggest part of the dystopian system depicted in this era was
the new society’s puritanical crusade against sexual pleasure. Even though the problem
of overpopulation can be addressed by simply blocking and cutting off people’s
reproductive capabilities, the pleasure of the doing the deed itself is seen as morally
offensive. Vonnegut satirized the American western mythology of outlaws and sheriffs
and 20th century cops-and-robbers stories in the names of his characters. In addition,
the story itself is highly masculine and even in macho traditions, it might appear as
offensive to women readers due to its depiction of women being kidnapped and raped
for their “own good”.

In Emily Lau’s article entitled “The Desire for a Relational God Behind Kurt
Vonnegut’s “EPICAC”, she briefly discusses the story as a message in code. She
connected the piece with the desire for a relational God behind. In "EPICAC," Vonnegut
lets God prominently well enough alone for the story and offers just to an apathetic
"destiny”. However, be that as it may, rather than rendering a social God unnecessary,
the story attracts consideration regarding humankind's hopelessness without Him.
Vonnegut uncovers how this mindfulness, feeling, interest, and the ability to love is an
incredible benefit that permits a person to investigate past physical and scholarly

7
breaking points, additionally a repulsive tribulation that frequently abandons him, her, or,
for this situation, it unfulfilled and always longing.

In the essay of entitled Science and Sensibility found in the book At Millennium's
End: New Essays on the Work of Kurt Vonnegut, author stated that EPICAC offered a
glimpse of what the believers of artificial intelligence hoped of what the future might be
—where a highly apperceptive computer can freely converse with human beings.

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CHAPTER 3

SYNOPSIS

9
Welcome to the Monkey House

The story of ‘Welcome to the Monkey House’ begins with Pete Crocker, a sheriff,
who warns the two hostesses of an Ethical Suicide Parlor, Nancy Mcluhan and Mary
Kraft, about Billy the Poet who was a ‘nothinghead’ – a person who has not been taking
ethical birth control pills, hence feeling the pleasure of sex. Due to the overpopulation of
the world, the taking of the said birth control pills was mandated by the government,
which basically made sex pleasureless. Another part of the government’s ploy to control
population was the implementation of Ethical Suicide Parlors where volunteers can
commit suicide through beautiful hostesses who peacefully kill them. All hostesses must
be virgins, at least six feet tall and well versed in martial arts.

The story continues with Nancy receiving a call, receiving a rather sexual themed
poem recited to her and hearing the speaker being caught by the police. The sheriff and
Mary proceeded to go to the scene in order to identify Billy the Poet, while Nancy goes
back to her client, whom she called Foxy Grandpa. He proceeds to tell her stories about
the birth control pills and how it originated its use in a monkey house and how the UN
was torn between population control and morals. After which, Foxy Grandpa then took
off his rubber mask and pointed a revolver at Nancy’s head. They then make their way
to the sewers, eventually reaching the Kennedy Museum, where they manage to
subdue her using a truth serum. Then, they take her to a bedroom where Billy the poet
proceeds to rape her. He proceeds to explain that what had taken place was similar to a
wedding night where a virgin would be deflowered, and that in their world, sexual
pleasure would only be felt at their stay inside an Ethical Suicide Parlor and in a sense,
equaled death in their society. He then tells her that she might eventually come to enjoy
sex and will eventually find a suitable mate in the growing population of ‘nothingheads’.
After their conversation, he leaves her with a poem by Elizabeth Browning and a bottle
of birth control pills which did not dull her sex drive, which was labeled ‘Welcome to the
Monkey House’.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

The story of tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow begins with Lou and his wife
Em Schwartz who were venting out their frustrations which was because of their

10
Grandfather. In their society, everyone had stopped aging because a drug that was
invented called ‘anti-gerason’. It was an easily accessible drug and was available to
everyone. Their living arrangements were relatively less than ideal, with their family
being cramped up while ‘Gramps’ kept a private room to himself and he also decided
who got to sleep the comfortable daybed, which was Lou and Em. In their society, death
due to natural causes were but a rarity, with all diseases having been cured, but in
contrast, natural supplies such as metal and gasoline were used up and lands were no
longer able to sustain life for crops. As a result, people were forced to eat seaweed and
sawdust. In their society, aging was not a problem, and so, Gramps was in control of
when he was to die, which leaves the opportunity of attaining greater comfort naught.
To which Em suggested that they dilute the ant-gerasone of Gramps which would
eventually lead to his death. Gramps would constantly state to the family that he would
let himself die when a certain occasion arrives but this is doubted by the family.
Everyone in their family looked like they were in their 20s or 30s but Gramps looked like
he was in his 70s because that was the time when anti-gerason was released. He would
also constantly change his last will and testament and null his previous wills naming his
inheritors or his ‘favorite’, which in this case was Lou’s father.

Lou and Em were forced to sleep near the bathroom, and while Lou was
sleeping, he was woken when his nephew stepped over him to get to the bathroom,
where he heard a sound, surprised to see that the anti-gerasone was being watered
down. He proceeds to replace the watered down anti-gerasone with full strength anti-
gerasone but Gramps catches him and it was seen as him watering it down. The next
day, Gramps left a note saying that he left to die because of Lou’s actions. To which he
left a will leaving the share of wealth equal to everyone in the family. This started a fight
over the private room which was the most comfortable, which eventually led to them
family being arrested. Ironically, it was in prison where they found privacy and enjoyed it
more than their lives in the outside world. Following this, Gramps returns home and
revealed that the note was a ploy to rid himself of his family. He finally places the
daybed in front of the TV and sees an advertisement regarding super anti-gerasone
which returns the youthful look of the person despite having taken anti-gerasone late in
his life.

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Deer in the Works

It is summer at the Ilium Works, the second-largest industrial plant in America, and
applicants are waiting in line for job interviews. David Potter is eventually admitted to
the employment office, and asked about his skills. When he reveals that he is a writer,
the receptionist refers him to booth 26, to speak with Mr. Dilling about a possible
opening in sales and advertising. Mr. Dilling reveals that there are few openings at the
time, but asks David to have a seat anyway.

David explains to Mr. Dilling that he owns a weekly newspaper in a nearby town, but
that he is seeking a new job to support his wife and four children, two of whom had
been born only days earlier. Seemingly impressed, Mr. Dilling mentions he might have a
position for David, at a low starting salary that could increase over time. Mr. Dilling then
steps away for a few minutes, and soon returns with news that Lou Flammer, the
publicity supervisor, has an opening for a stenographer.

After passing a physical that qualifies him, David calls his wife Nanfrom the company
hospital with the news. Nan is still at another hospital with their newly-born twin girls,
and hesitantly warns him that he might not fit in well at a place like Ilium Works.
Whereas he has "always been so free" as his own employer, the corporate lifestyle
requires subservience to rules (226). She argues that the paper is profitable, but he is
convinced that a new job will be more sustainable and dependable. Though she accepts
his reasoning, she asks him not to sell the paper to his assistant Ed Jason - whose
father had shown interest in buying it - until he is certain about the new job. He agrees.

David steps out of the hospital into the vast world of the Works, and asks a passing
elderly man for directions to Building 31, where Mr. Flammer's office is located.
Explaining he has worked there for 50 years, the man leads him to the building.

There, Mr. Flammer greets him sweetly, mistaking him for a scoutmaster; he is set to
give a tour to Boy Scouts later in the day. When he realizes that David is his new
stenographer, he drops his charming attitude and explains the rating sheet system:
every six months, each employee is rated by three people who have worked closely

12
with him. Ratings cover appearance, loyalty, initiative, and other qualities. These rating
sheets and seniority determine raises for the employees.

While he is explaining company policies, Mr. Flammer receives a phone call with news
that a deer is running loose in the Works. It had been hiding under the bleachers, but is
now cornered near the metallurgy lab. Flammer sends David to meet a photographer
there so he can cover the story and control the P.R., but gives confusing directions.

Overwhelmed, David rushes towards the lab, but gets lost and ends up near an alley.
Unable to remember which lab he is looking for, he cannot ask for directions, and
nobody knows anything about the deer.

David takes refuge in a random factory building, and decides to call Flammer. He asks
directions from a machinist, whose words are obscured by the sound of the huge
machines around them. Finally, a receptionist directs David to a nearby telephone, but
only crystallographers are allowed in the building that day. David claims he is a
crystallographer, and a man named Stan Dunkel shows him an X-ray
spectrogoniometer, asking for feedback. David gives a vague response.

Finally, David reaches the telephone booth and calls Mr. Flammer's office, but the man
is not in. However, Mr. Flammer has left a message for David with his receptionist: once
the team catches the deer, David is to ensure it is butchered and served at the Quarter-
Century Club picnic, a celebration for people who have been with the company at least
twenty-five years.

David walks back outside to a baseball field, and sits down behind the bleachers to rest.
Suddenly, he sees the deer, with broken antlers and a limp, being pursued by a group
of men. The deer ends up trapped against the outer fence of the Works.

Suddenly, a limousine pulls up, and Mr. Flammer leans from its window to command the
team to keep the deer alive until his photographer gets a picture. Seeing David there,
Flammer assumes that he has followed directions and successfully gotten the story. But
when the deer rushes along the fence toward David, he impulsively reaches out, opens
the latch, and lets the deer escape back into the woods. Then he follows it himself.

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2BR02B

The story of 2br02b describes the world as being rid of all illnesses and diseases,
it was basically a ‘perfect’ world except for the matter of overpopulation. Through the
development of technology, new drugs were developed which prevented people from
growing older, and because of this, an adult must voluntarily die if they wish to bring in a
new child into the world.

The story begins with a father in the waiting room of a hospital, waiting as his
wife gives birth to his triplets. Inside that very same room was a 200 year-old painter,
who was working on a mural of the hospital’s history. Along came an orderly who
conversed with the painter, which lead to the painter scorning his very work, stating that
it did not depict life as it was, and that the painter would rather choose a messy suicide
over a government controlled death. Following this, a gas chamber hostess came and
was to be painted next to Dr. Hitz, one of the first to set up a gas chamber in Chicago,
whom she admired so much. After which, Dr. Hitz himself came into the room and
announced the birth of the Wehling triplets, but knew that Mr. Wehling could only
account for 1 more person in exchange for the life of one of the children, which was his
grandfather; Dr. Hitz proceeded to scold him stating the problem about overpopulation;
but being unable to choose between his children, Mr. Wehling took out a revolver and
shot Dr. Hitz, the gas chamber hostess, and himself, in order to make room for his
triplets. Upon seeing the sorry sight, the painter picked up the revolver thinking of killing
himself, however, was unable to do it and opted to call the number ‘2BR02B’ in order to
schedule an appointment at a suicide parlor.

EPICAC

EPICAC is a story about a supercomputer who is befriended by a mathematician

who was one of the people in charge of handling EPICAC. And while EPICAC is a
supercomputer, it did not quite live up to its expectations. But because it was ahead of
all its predecessors, it was kept running for 16 hours a day.

The mathematician who befriended him would also teach EPICAC about the
outside world and communicated through ribbons of papers. That very same

14
mathematician was in love with the other person who he was with during the nightshift,
Pat. He tried to confess his love and proposed to her several times but was ultimately
rejected every single time. She wanted something more romantic, to which the
mathematician was clueless. In his frustration, he told EPICAC about his problems and
ended up explaining the concept of love and poetry to him. To his surprise, ribbons of
paper came out which he translated, and as it turns out, was beautiful poetry. He then
left the poem for Pat who was overjoyed and kissed him. He continued to tell EPICAC
about the kiss and he composed a beautiful sonnet which the mathematician then left
for Pat. Again, Pat loved it and accepted the proposal on the condition that he writes a
poem for every anniversary, and he proceeded to tell EPICAC about it, which he then
interpreted as Pat falling in love with him. The mathematician then clarified that it was
him that Pat was in love with, not EPICAC. And while EPICAC was the one who
composed the poems, he is only a computer and women cannot love computers;
computers were made to serve men, and it was one of the problems he could not solve.
The very next day, EPICAC was found to be destroyed, but several yards of ribbon
paper was found which contained 500 poems for Pat which were to be gifted to her at
each anniversary.

15
 CHAPTER 4

ANALYSIS PROPER

EPICAC

The story revolves around a supercomputer, a mathematician and the girl he is in

love with. The mathematician takes credit for the supercomputer’s literary work and
uses it to woo his bride to be. The girl, unaware that it was EPICAC who wrote those
very same works of poetry, showered her affection on the mathematician. Eventually
EPICAC began to think that it was it whom Pat was in love with, which the
mathematician corrected and stated that he was but a mere tool that is used to serve
man and that Pat could never love a computer, and also that she was in love with the
Mathematician and not it.

EPICAC can be compared to that of a sheltered child who is unaware of the

outside world. While EPICAC is a genius in certain aspects, he does not meet the
expectations of him, but is still used because he still the most capable. Upon the
introduction of the mathematician, he begins to become aware of the outside world, and
while he can only understand in terms of binary, he begins to form a concept of poetry
and love through the mathematician. Due to its naivety, it begins to think that Pat is in
love with it but he faces the harsh reality that it is problem that cannot be solved. It then
accepts this and leaves behind a gift of 500 poems for Pat as itself. This act of
destroying itself can be seen as a voluntary choice of suicide, wherein he was not able
to solve a problem and came to a conclusion that his only function would be to produce
literary pieces which would please Pat which in turn led to his demise; while it is
uncertain if EPICAC was aware of that his actions would lead to his demise, the
prevalence of sacrifice, and suicide is prevalent in its character.

This brings into light the character of the mathematician; he is seen as a friendly
character with no intention to do harm, but due to his love for the girl, he does not
immediately see the effect of his words to EPICAC. He then begins to build a
dependency on EPICAC in order to make Pat swoon and fall for him. He is portrayed as
an intelligent man who is incapable of depicting his affections through literary work. And

16
he then begins to use EPICAC as a means to remedy the fault. In the story, he treats
EPICAC as a friend rather than a computer, but this brings to question on whether his
‘manipulation’ of EPICAC is ethical, considering than he was treating it as a friend rather
than a machine. To which he also contradicts himself in that he states that machines
were built to serve men; which is also depicted through his dependency on EPICAC’s
ability to compose beautiful literary pieces. In terms of reality, the mathematician can be
depicted as a person who unknowingly led a clueless person into false belief and
pushed him to his limits eventually accepting fate and which led to him committing
suicide.

In light of this, Pat unknowingly provided a motive for the mathematician to lead
EPICAC into doing its act of sacrifice. She is depicted as intelligent, and capable, but
still a woman who wishes to be swept off her feet, which she found through EPICAC’s
poetry.

In contrast to his other works, EPICAC is not set in a dystopian future and does
include the problems such as overpopulation, government supported ethical suicide,
and underlying sexual themes, rather it was set at an earlier time and seems to have a
façade of an innocent story talking about love and a simple misunderstanding of a love
that cannot be in which one had to give up because it was futile.

The story can be interpreted in several ways, but in relation to the themes of Kurt
Vonnegut, the story seems to have a darker underlying theme involving coercion and
suicide for the greater good of the many and involves the central theme of development
and technology wherein we have developed to a point of dependency on the
advancements of man.

2BR02B

Being set in a world without disease and illness, this brings into question what is
the main problem? Population. The story begins with an expecting husband, who awaits
the birth of his triplets, but must find two other people willing to sacrifice their lives in
order for the husband to keep all three of his children. Enter a painter who is painting a
mural which he detests as he believes that it does not accurately depict life in their

17
society along with an orderly who seem to oppose the opinion of the painter. And a
hostess who shares the belief of Dr. Hitz who was one of the proprietors of the Ethical
Suicide Parlor in Chicago.

In the story, suicide is ethical and encouraged by the government through the
use of Ethical Suicide Parlors. This was done in order to facilitate the control of
population considering that death of natural causes was a rarity.

Normally, one would think that in a world rid of disease and ailments, life would
be better. But as depicted in this story, that is far from the truth. Removal of one
problem only uncovers more, which in this case, is death. Being able to live forever
does not guarantee a happy and fulfilling life. There will always be trials and problems
that you will face over the course of your life and it just so happens that it is impossible
to separate death from life as death is constant. Death cannot be fully eradicated, it only
shifts its form from one to another. With death rates at an all time low, this would bring
an imbalance to the ecosystem and eventually cause problems which were not
mentioned directly within the story, such as depletion of natural resources, increase in
demand and a large decrease in supply, and so on. We can see that the eradication or
extinction of a certain species would cause a grave imbalance in nature, wherein a
certain species would either grow in number or deplete themselves because of the
extinction of the previous species. This creates a domino effect leading to various
changes until an equilibrium is made wherein nature has found a way to balance the
changes and be able to maintain life once again.

In relation to the story, the father is seen to be awaiting the birth of his triplets but
is troubled wherein he is unsure of who to pick considering he only has one candidate
for ethical suicide which would allow the survival of only one of his children. He is
conflicted on how to go about the problem. Normally, the father is in the position of
power making decisions that would affect the whole household but how does one
choose who gets to live or die? Are you God to choose among the worthy? Why do you
need to choose? In his situation, you would come up to a point where you can no longer
think of a sane answer. Out of desperation you come up with a solution which you
normally would not be able to consider; you kill three people. The man in front of you

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who is belittling the worth of the lives of your children and is making you choose
between them, the hostess who is a devout admirer of the man making you choose and
is supportive of you killing off two of your other children so that the population would be
controlled, and yourself, who is consumed by guilt as he commits murder in order to let
his children live.

The orderly who was introduced in the story was a supporter of the
implementation of ethical suicide parlors; where he thought it was a better way to go
than actually killing yourself which he considered messy. In relation to our society, he
can be seen as a law abiding citizen who follows what the government says. While this
does make you a good citizen, you have to question whether blindly following the
government is the correct path, you as a human are rational and capable of
distinguishing between right and wrong. But in the context of the story, overpopulation
seems to be the prevalent issues considering the eradication of disease. But does that
still justify suicide? In light of this, the government will always be presumed to have the
best of the masses in mind, it may very well be the most logical answer should you
disregard morals and ethics.

The following character introduced was the hostess who was to be painted in the
mural, who was amazed that she was allowed to be painted beside Dr. Hitz, who was
basically her hero considering that he was of the first to establish an ethical suicide
parlor in Chicago. Which in turn questions the morality of the characters in the story,
they have been twisted to a point where they think suicide is a viable option and is
morally and ethically acceptable as it is being encouraged by the government. Again,
we consider the context where the largest problem of society is overpopulation
considering that death is basically optional and people were immortals, should they
choose to be. In relation to ethics, people are given the autonomy to choose for
themselves, but in a way, are being encouraged to commit suicide for the good of the
many. She may be interpreted as a character taught incorrect beliefs, should she be
applied in the context of our society, where she can be likened to that of a child raised
by murderers who sees murder as a moral action.

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 Next is Dr. Hitz, one of the prevalent figures in the ethical suicide parlor industry.
Having opened up one of the first ethical suicide parlors in Chicago, he has gained
recognition in the industry, and to some, is seen as a hero and philanthropist who is
aiding in the government’s quest to solve the ever growing overpopulation problem. In
the story, it seems that the ethical suicide parlor industry is quite lucrative, and popular.
So while he seems to be a philanthropist to many, he may very well be a sleek business
man who seeks to maintain his good image while amounting a large amount of wealth
through ‘ethical’ means.

While he is the first character to be introduced, he is the last to mentioned in the

story. The painter is an important figure in this story because he serves as a person
who witnessed everything. The painter stated that he disliked his mural because it did
not accurately depict society. Perhaps the mural depicted ethical suicide as a saving
grace to man’s ever growing problem of population and that those who built upon the
ethical suicide parlor industry, as heroes, and in this context, Dr. Hitz. Those that
supported him in carrying out the act of ethical suicide are also depicted as heroes
because they contribute to society through killing people in order to control the
population, which in this case is the hostess and perhaps also the orderlies. The
followers of the government who support the use of ethical suicide as a means to
remedy overpopulation.

The painter can be likened to a citizen who is aware of the prevalent social
issues and how society actually is, but is unable to do anything about it. All he can do is
haplessly stand as societies problems unfold and continue to cause more and more
destruction, until it reaches to the point where he can no longer take it. In the story, he is
the last mentioned as he witnessed the murder of the 3 people, including the murderer,
and a question comes to mind, if ethical suicide was moral, was the murder itself
ethical? The term ‘ethical suicide’ does not necessarily mean suicide at your own hands
because it is conducted by a hostess who injects you with a needle, and while this is
‘voluntary’ it can be argued that morality of this action is subjective considering the need
of society and how people augment what is moral to what we need. Upon witnessing
the act of murder out of desperation in front, the painter is left with a choice, commit

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suicide with the very same murder weapon so that you may die by your own hands and
leave that society which has supported and legalized the use of murder to control
population, or use the very same supported method of ‘ethical suicide’ which is
supported by the masses. As depicted in the story, it is seen that he is unable to pull the
trigger and opts to dial ‘2BR02B’. Many speculations can be made from this but what is
apparent is that he is not capable of committing the act of suicide through his own
hands because he cannot bear the weight of his actions, and instead chooses a death
through the hands of another person, which shows that the act of killing yourself is still
seen as immoral and unacceptable to the painter.

This story is similar to Kurt’s other works such as ‘Welcome to the Monkey
House’ and ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’, which features the ‘immortality’,
wherein death is an option provided to the people where they can choose not to die for
as long as they please. These stories are set in a dystopian future where diseases are
eradicated and development of technology and health sciences seem to be the main
theme. But as seen in the stories, eradication of disease does not guarantee a society
without problems as death shifts in one form to another. Issues continue to arise
stemming from the lack of death and a shift in morality is seen to pattern the needs of
society.

However, unlike his other work ‘EPICAC’, this has an obviously dark theme that
flaunts the issue of suicide and morality, and the justification of actions to meet the
needs of the many.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

The story is set in a time where aging has become obliterated thanks to the
development of a serum called anti-gerasone, which stops you from aging and retains
your physical state at the time you have started to take anti-gerasone. The recurring
theme among the stories seem to revolve around ‘immortality’, where death is but an
option you do not have to choose. As with the other stories, it seems that ailments have
all been cured within the society so the shift towards population control is seen.
However, what was emphasized here was the ‘comfort’ aspect of overpopulation, where

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having several people live in a cramped location because of the lack of space to
accommodate the increased number of inhabitants.

Lou Schwartz and Em Schwartz were the first characters to be introduced and
they were seen to be discussing about Gramps and how he lived in a comfortable
private room, and while they were given a relatively comfortable location to reside in,
their family had a less than optimal living arrangement. In this story, while the main
theme seems to revolve around ‘immortality’ and ‘medical advancement’, an emphasis
on comfort is seen in the story, that despite the lack of death, the issue of comfort still
arose to the point that they preferred staying in jail where there was privacy, rather than
their home.

Gramps was depicted to have been unfair when it came to family matters, putting
himself first over his other family members. He treated his family poorly and this was
evident through the actions of the nephew who diluted the anti-gerasone in order to
make him die. He pushed his family to the point of wanting to kill him just to be rid of
him being a nuisance. He also constantly changed his will and testament in order to
change the inheritors and shift the dynamics of his family. He can be interpreted as a
typical ‘father figure’ who abuses his power for his personal gain, which in this case is
the acquisition of the private room and the assigning of the day bed to his then favorite
family members. He manipulates his family in order to facilitate his own agenda. As
seen in the story where he left a note saying that he has left to die because of the
actions of Lou, who he thought was watering down his anti-garisone, which would
eventually lead to his death. He did so in order to start an argument in the family
regarding the will, and the final share of inheritance. The argument escalated which
eventually led to the police intervening because of them causing a public disturbance
which caused them to get arrested and be locked up in jail. After which, Gramps was
seen to have returned to the house hold, and the whole scene was a ploy in order to rid
himself of the nuisances which was his family. Again we see here the ploy of utilizing his
power to his own benefit.

An issue with Gramps is that he has promised to end his life when a certain
occasion arises but still has not done so which implies that he has no plans on ending

22
his life any time soon. This led to his the actions of the nephew which would eventually
lead to his demise. In light of this, the morality of the nephew’s actions are brought
forward because it can be argued that while his actions were immoral, it was the
treatment of Gramps that brought about the said incident. But what the nephew did
cannot be counted as murder considering that it the anti-garisone does not treat
ailment, but rather, it stops aging itself. In a sense, it is stopping the natural course of
life. All the nephew did was continue the process.

Which brings forward the actions of Lou who replaced the watered down anti-
garisone with a new bottle of full strength anti-garisone because while he knew it would
not directly harm Gramps, it would eventually lead to his death. And likened to that of
the painter in ‘2BR02B’, he chose not to bear the guilt of death on his shoulders.

With all the literary pieces, life is central focus where death is but an option and
that medical science has advanced to the point of removing diseases and illnesses from
society leading to the longevity of life of the human beings. In this selection, the effect of
overpopulation is clearly stated with the depletion of the metals and gasoline, as well as
the other natural resources, this is because of the imbalanced caused by the lack of
death of human beings. We continue to consume and consume until there is nothing
left. The resources are abused to the point where they are completely exhausted and
cannot be renewed or retrieved in any other way. This also applies to agriculture, the
lands have been exhausted and can no longer be utilized for farming and growing
crops. They have become barren as though they are deserts. Which has forced
mankind to settle for processed seaweed and sawdust as a source of nutrition. This
then depicts the harsh truth that cheating death has its own consequences.

Welcome to the Monkey House

The story is set in an Ethical Suicide Parlor with the two hostesses Nancy and
Mary who are warned regarding Billy the Poet, a ‘nothinghead’ who seduces hostesses.
In their society, overpopulation is the prevalent problem and the solution identified by
the government was the implementation of ethical birth control pills which numb the
lower body thereby removing all the pleasure from sex. One peculiar thing was the
requirements of being a hostess, in which the hostesses must be at least six feet tall,

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knowledgeable in martial arts as well as adept in nursing and psychology. In which they
are implied to be beautiful but deadly. In a society were sex is pleasureless, what is the
point of being attractive? In a sense, sex is equated to death because they are unable
to accommodate an increase in population. Having beautiful women as hostesses are
ironic because it is at the final end of their life that the volunteers get as close as they
can to sexual pleasure.

Both Nancy and Mary can be likened to that of young law abiding citizens, they
follow the law through and through. They thoroughly believe that what the government
is implementing is justifiable and right in order to meet the needs of the masses. What is
evident here is in our society, suicide is seen as a horrible act, but in the story’s setting,
suicide has been turned into a lucrative business. Suicide parlors have been set up,
hiring several hostesses who conduct the actual ‘suicide’ act of the volunteer. It can be
seen that morality can be bent to facilitate the need of society, as evidenced in the
stories, suicide is seen as a norm in their society, to the point that it is even encouraged.
In a sense, suicide can be seen as a heroic act, considering the current state of the
world and the problems with resources that are on the rise. What can be brought to
question is that while the world is rid of disease and there is the prevalent longevity of
life, what point is there in dying? To which we can see that even if death is somehow
postponed or removed, more and more problems become prevalent. To which we can
ask, was man meant to be immortal and live forever? If he was, why are all these
problems arising when they have finally attained that longed ‘eternal life’? Perhaps man
was not supposed to live long, in that the removal of death, a natural phenomenon, was
against nature and in a way, nature is attempting to restore balance and finding a way
to kill the ‘immortal’ humans.

Nothingheads as depicted in the story are sex-craving people who refuse to take
the government mandated birth control pills, and still constantly enjoy sex. The most
prevalent ‘nothinghead’ is Billy the poet. He targets the hostesses of suicide parlors who
are virgins despite their attractive appearance. Billy the poet disguises himself as ‘Foxy
Grandpa’, a ‘client’ at the suicide parlor in order to get close to the hostess. His actions
can be interpreted as a deviant of society trying to ‘blend in’ and follow the norms in

24
order to get close to people and show them that the ‘norm’, in this case, the use of the
government mandated birth control pills which numbed the lower body to remove the
pleasure from sex, was not correct.

Billy proceeds to rape the hostess in an attempt to make her understand that
while the government’s ‘banning’ of sexual activities provides a solution to the current
overpopulation problem, the act itself is not wrong. While forceful, what Billy the poet did
was widen the perspective of the hostess who, has blindly followed the government,
and through his actions, she begins to slowly realize the reality that Billy presented, that
perhaps there may be another alternative rather than the one provided by the
government, which was the birth control pills provided by Billy at the end, which, in
comparison to the government mandated pills, do not numb your lower body but still
prevents the woman from getting pregnant, so it still solves the problem regarding
controlling the population.

Deer in the Works

SHORT ANALYSIS

SHORT ANALYSIS

SHORT ANALYSIS

The central theme of these stories seem to revolve around technology development
and the prolongation of human life, wherein man has advanced to the point where he no
longer fears death, and can freely choose how long his life should be. The analyses of
the stories raises 3 questions:

● To what extent should man continue to develop?

● What change caused the acceptance of suicide as a norm in society?
● What problems would arise in a world where disease and illness have been
eradicated?

We can see in the stories that man is capable of advancing and developing
technology that helps him surpass his limits, which in this case is death. But what is the
point of death if man was meant to transcend it? Death is part of life’s cycle and is

25
meant to maintain balance to everything around us. This can be seen in ecosystems
where vegetation gets eaten by herbivores, herbivores by carnivores, and carnivores by
larger carnivores, and when the carnivores die, they become fertilizer which the
vegetation utilize in order to proliferate which repeats the cycle. Should one of these be
taken out of the cycle, or if one should become ‘immortal’ and their numbers continue to
increase, the balance will be broken and the changes will slowly become evident. The
species beneath it will slowly reduce to the point where they cannot maintain their
numbers and will eventually become extinct, the problem that then arises is where do
you find a species that replaces the extinct one? The ‘immortal’ species will continue to
try and find something else to feed on and eventually cause them to go extinct as well,
and this cycle repeats itself until all resources have been exhausted.

As evident in nature, we can see that man is not meant to live forever. Death is in
the cycle for a reason that it is to maintain balance. If no man chooses to die, the
population will continue to grow and grow to the point where all resources will be
exhausted. Death is a means to prevent our world from dying, which in itself is an irony.

But should it reach a point where man has developed enough to be able to control
the time of his death, should he choose to, the obvious problem that would arise is
overpopulation, as seen in the stories of Kurt Vonnegut. Man prefers living over dying
because it is in life where he experiences those things that he enjoys, which in the case
of ‘Welcome to the monkey house’ is sex, while in the case of ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow
and tomorrow’ is the experience of comfort in life. The obvious solution to the problem
of overpopulation is the reintegration of death into the cycle, and as seen in the stories,
the solution that was implemented was through the legalization of suicide as well as the
establishment of Ethical Suicide Parlors and the encouragement of the population to
utilize these said establishments. But in our society, suicide is seen as a negative act, it
connotes to murdering one’s self which is frowned upon by the Church, government, as
well as society in general. Life is seen as precious and a gift, and it is not we who
decide when we should die. Death is a natural process and can only be depicted by
God, man was made in the likeness of God, and his life merely a gift, and he a steward.

26
Hence, he does not have a right to end his own life. Man must follow the course laid out
by God.

But as evidenced in the stories, suicide was encouraged, and the moral and ethical
aspect of suicide has been curved in order to meet the needs of society. While the
implementation of birth control pills would aid in controlling the population, it would not
solve the current problem of overpopulation. This overpopulation is already evident in
our own society, where we are reaching the point where we can no manage a
sustainable usage of resources. We are constantly depleting non-renewable resources
and not utilizing, or in some cases, abusing renewable resources, and we can see that
birth control through education, utilization of devices and contraceptives have been
implemented, but the overpopulation is still a huge issue. What is ironic is that abortion
is frowned upon in a world that is already slowly dying because it cannot maintain the
balance of the increasing population with the increased demand for resources with the
amount of available resources. We are constantly finding ways in order to increase our
available resources: electric cars, solar panels, wind energy, and so on. These indeed
contribute in aiding the arising depletion of our available resources, but as our
population continues to grow, so will the demand, eventually it will reach a point where
our advancement in increasing the amount of available resources will no longer be able
to sustain our growing population. Those ‘innovations’ aid in our situation but does not
address the main problem at hand.

The obvious problem in our society is the prevalent increase in our population,
rather, overpopulation. The answer, while obvious, is not widely accepted because of
the negative connotation that it entails. The answer to overpopulation is the reduction in
population which would the balance return to our ‘ecosystem’, and the only choices that
would cause a reduction in population would be a mass genocide; this choice is seen as
the most effective means of reducing population as it does not require the consent of
people, considering that they are selected to die in order to resolve the problem of
overpopulation. It is obvious that this choice is unacceptable due to the mass murder of
people who unknowingly will be selected. In terms of ethics, there is a violation of free
and informed consent, as they are basically ‘forced’ to participate without knowing, as

27
well as a violation of beneficence and non-maleficence, considering that harm will be
done to them, or rather, they will be killed in order to resolve the population problem.

The second possible option to reside the problem of overpopulation is the

‘encouragement’ of a reduction in population which was introduced through ethical
suicide parlors in the stories. While still morally questionable, the ‘ethical suicide’ will by
voluntarily done by people who choose to die, hence solving the problem of free and
informed consent as well as the problem with autonomy and self-determination. A
person must be free to choose his own path and what is to happen to him, he must not
be forced or coerced in anyway in order to make the action licit and ethical. Should the
person choose to commit ‘ethical suicide’ he will be aiding in the reduction of population,
but in contrast to the mass genocide, this method will only cause a small decline, if any,
to the population as it cannot be guaranteed that a large portion of the population will
opt to commit suicide. A change in the mindset of people must be made in order to
facilitate this method. As seen in the stories, suicide through ethical suicide parlors are
seen as acceptable and even promoted by people. With the support of the government,
it has become a norm in society and is widely accepted.

We can see that a change in the belief, views and mindset of people are required in
order to facilitate in societal norms. Morality is seen to be a subjective topic in terms of
the stories as it is seen to facilitate the needs of society. What is moral and what is not
varies on what society needs. That is why suicide has become ethical in the stories, it is
what is needed by their society. If they did not utilize that solution and continue with the
increasing population, they would continue to encounter greater problems than the
exhaustion of resources.

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 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

A. Conclusion

B. Recommendation

29
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

At Millennium's End: New Essays on the Work of Kurt Vonnegut By Kevin Alexander
Boon

Critical Companion to Kurt Vonnegut: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work By
Susan Farrell

Kurt Vonnegut: A Critical Companion By Thomas F. Marvin

New Critical Essays on Kurt Vonnegut edited by D. Simmons

The Vonnegut Effect By Jerome Klinkowitz

THE USE OF BLACK HUMOR IN KURT VONNEGUT‟S SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE

AND HARRIET BEECHER STOWE‟S UNCLE TOM’S CABIN by Joyce Daniels

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 BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana, a
city he would later use in his novels as a symbol of American values.

Kurt Sr. was one of the most prominent architects in the city, and his wife, Edith,
was the daughter of a wealthy Indianapolis brewer. Kurt Jr. was the youngest of their
three children, along with middle child Alice and first-born Bernard.

The fortunes of the family changed dramatically during the Depression when Kurt
Sr. saw his architectural business disappear. He had to sell the family home and take
young Kurt out of private school, the Orchard School where, in kindergarten, Kurt had
met Jane Cox, who eventually became his wife.

This radical change in economic circumstances caused Kurt Sr. virtually to give
up on life and Edith to become addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. Kurt Jr.’s
lifelong pessimism clearly had its roots in his parents’ despairing response to being
blindsided by the Depression.

The teen years

At Shortridge High, Vonnegut wrote for the student paper, The Echo, and he
continued his interest in journalism at Cornell, becoming managing editor of the student
paper, The Sun. Vonnegut would be influenced all his writing life by the simple rules of
journalism: Get the facts right, compose straightforward declarative sentences, know
the audience. Vonnegut studied chemistry at Cornell but later confessed he was a
“lousy student.”

When World War II broke out, Vonnegut was 16; at 20, he entered the army and
was shipped off to Europe, where he almost immediately was captured by the Germans
in the Battle of the Bulge.

World War II

He was sent as a POW to Dresden. On February 13, 1945, British and American
bombers destroyed the city by dropping high explosives followed by incendiary bombs.
The resulting firestorm turned the non-militarized city into an inferno that killed up to

31
60,000 civilians. Vonnegut and his fellow POWs survived by accident only because they
were housed some 60 feet underground in a former meat locker and slaughterhouse.

Vonnegut’s job for weeks after the bombing was to gather up and burn the
remains of the dead. His experience at Dresden marked him for life and eventually
resulted in his literary masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five.

Yet another sorrow of the war years was his mother’s suicide by drug overdose in 1944.

Marriage, family and novels

After the war, Vonnegut married Jane Cox. They had their first child, Mark.

Vonnegut took an advertising job at General Electric to support his family and
began writing short fiction on the side. Kurt and Jane had two more children, Edith and
Nanette, and Vonnegut redoubled his efforts to publish his stories.

In 1952, his dystopian apprentice novel Player Piano was published. Vonnegut’s
beloved sister Alice Adams died of cancer in 1957, just two days after her husband had
been killed in a freak commuter train crash. Kurt and Jane took in three of Alice’s
children, doubling the size of their family overnight. It became more imperative for
Vonnegut to bring in more money.

Within 10 years following the arrival of the Adams boys, the short-story market
was drying up and Vonnegut turned his attention to novels. He published the whimsical
sci-fi epic The Sirens of Titan, the spy novel Mother Night, the fanciful anthropological
satire of religion Cat’s Cradle, a critique of economic injustice, God Bless You, Mr.
Rosewater and, in 1969, his Dresden novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.

In these books, Vonnegut mastered his trademark black comic voice, making his
audience laugh despite the horrors he described. He had already developed a cult
following of college students, but he broke through to a mass audience with
Slaughterhouse-Five and the excellent film version of the novel that soon followed. By
the early 1970s, Vonnegut was one of the most famous living writers on earth.

The 1970s

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 Yet, the 1970s proved a difficult time for Vonnegut. After his children grew up and
left home, his long marriage to Jane fell apart. He moved alone from Cape Cod to New
York City, became withdrawn and depressed and suffered from writer’s block. His son,
Mark, suffered a bipolar disorder breakdown early in the decade, but recovered to write
a book about it called The Eden Express.

Not surprisingly, the disintegration of families became a major theme in

Vonnegut’s two novels in the middle 1970s, Breakfast of Champions and Slapstick.
While not altogether successful as fiction, these books helped Vonnegut work through
the emotional problems that had plagued him since childhood.

In the 1980s, Vonnegut entered a second major phase of his career. His 1979
marriage to photographer Jill Krementz formalized their relationship of several years,
and the social realist novels Jailbird, Deadeye Dick and Bluebeard showed a
remarkable resurgence of Vonnegut’s career after the critical backlash he had suffered
in the 1970s.

Galapagos was a brilliant look at Vonnegut’s concerns that the “oversized human
brain” was ironically leading mankind to possible extinction. Vonnegut also published his
third major collection of essays, Palm Sunday.

Speaking for our freedoms

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Vonnegut acted as a powerful spokesman for
the preservation of our Constitutional freedoms, for nuclear arms control and for the
protection of the earth’s fragile biosphere.

As the new century began, Vonnegut continued to try to be, as he said, “a

responsible elder in our society,” decrying the militarization of our county after the
terrorist attacks of 2001.

In his last novel, Timequake, and his last collection of essays, A Man without a
Country, Vonnegut powerfully expressed his sense that corporate greed, overpopulation
and war would win out in the end over simple humanity. As he ruefully apologized to

33
those who would come after him, “We could have saved the world, but we were just too
damned lazy.”

Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007, after a fall on the steps of his New York
brownstone. He was mourned the world over as one of the great American writers of the
second half of the 20th century.

A Brief Biography of Kurt Vonnegut

by William Rodney Allen

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35