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Kurt Vonnegut-2
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A Unique Vision of the End and Everything In Between Thesis: Through his novels, Kurt Vonnegut expresses his distrust of technology, opposition to religion and fear of a rapidly evolving society. I. Introduction II. Kurt Vonnegut distrusts the rapid movement towards an automated human race. A. The theme in some of Vonnegut’s novels and short stories is that humankind needs to move away from a reliance on technology. 1. Vonnegut's novels are like an outline for what we shouldn’t let happen. 2. The basis for Player Piano is a machine run America and the what happens when people realize their own selves and that they are not a shell of a machine. B. Vonnegut’s solution to the rapid movement towards letting machines take precedence over humans is that we rely more on each other than technology. 1. "The Ghost Shirt Society" in Player Piano unites to attempt to take back their lives from the machines. 2. After the rebellion against the machines, Ilium becomes a sort of human co-op, with everyone beginning to clean away the rubble and beginning to rebuild their lives how they choose. III. Kurt Vonnegut expresses opposition to religion through his work. A. Vonnegut often uses religions that are cheapened to serve someone else’s purpose at the expense of others 1. In The Sirens of Titan, hundreds of thousands of lives are sacrificed in the Earth/Mars war, just to establish a new religion. 2. In Cat’s Cradle, Bokononism is established by the government of San Lorenzo to make the people forget about their poor quality of lives. B. Vonnegut’s novels see ordinary people become deified and manipulated to become spokespeople for some greater human force. 1. In The Sirens of Titan, Malachi Constant becomes a faux Christ as the Space Wanderer. 2. In Player Piano, when Paul Proteus agrees to join the Ghost Shirt Society, he becomes a sort of messiah for them. C. The religions Vonnegut creates for his novels are often used to divert attention from more real, more pressing problems that people in these novels face. 1. San Lorenzo is in a state of poverty, but Bokononism gives people some thrill in their lives because it’s outlawed (Vonnegut, Cradle). 2. In The Sirens of Titan, the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent has people handicap themselves so everyone is equal, destroying individuality and creating a uniform race. IV. Vonnegut fears the rapid evolution of our society. A. Through the fictional realm of his writing, Vonnegut expresses his fear of our evolution through worlds where humanity has gotten too smart and cruel for our own good. 1. In Welcome to the Monkey House, the population on Earth has reached so many people that civilians are required to take Ethical Birth Control pills. 2. The other way to lower the population is that people are encouraged to kill themselves at Ethical Suicide Parlors. B. Through the fictional realm of his writing, Vonnegut expresses his fear of our evolution through worlds where humanity has gotten too smart and cruel for our own good. 1. Galapagos focuses on this, telling of a world where only a few people are left and the human race is reborn in a much more primitive form. 2. Galapagos expresses Vonnegut’s view of humankind’s slim chance of living how we are much longer. V. Conclusion When a child was born in Indianapolis on November 11, 1922, one of modern American literature’s most hailed and disliked authors entered the world. He was named Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Many people enjoy his "breezy style and innovative subject matter" (Encarta), while others find this subject matter radical and offensive. Vonnegut always enjoyed writing. During both high school and college he edited for his schools newspapers. He attended Cornell University in his home state before leaving to fight in World War II with the United States Air Force. Shortly after he arrived in Europe and began fighting, his mother committed suicide.
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