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Born on November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. grew up to become a prolific writer, publishing 14 novels, 81 articles and essays, 123 stories, one poem, and seven plays (Reed n.p.). An attendee of Shortridge High School, Kurt Vonnegut wrote for the Shortridge Daily Echo (Reed n.p.), and the rigor of maintaining a daily newspaper shaped his work ethic as a writer. Vonnegut remained interested in journalism throughout college, serving as the managing editor of Cornell University’s newspaper, The Sun (Reed n.p.).
Even though he never launched his career as a journalist, the fundamental rules of journalism continued to influence Vonnegut’s writing for the rest of his life. Collecting the right facts, utilizing straightforward, declarative sentences, and knowing the audience became Vonnegut’s trademark writing process. Like a journalist, Kurt Vonnegut also received inspiration for his works from societal issues such as wars, socioeconomic disparity, and human immorality as well as personal experiences such as his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, family issues, and favorite books.
Kurt Vonnegut lived during a historically significant period, filled with momentous occurrences.
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This era evoked powerful thoughts and emotions, which influenced many of his novels. As a young child, Kurt Vonnegut experienced the bitter repercussions of the Great Depression. His father, Kurt Vonnegut Sr.
was one of the most prominent architects in Indianapolis, and his mother, Edith, was the daughter of a wealthy brewer (Reed n.p.). Unfortunately, the Great Depression drastically transformed his family dynamics. When the architectural business failed, Kurt Vonnegut Sr. sold the family home and withdrew Kurt Vonnegut Jr. from private school. To make matters worse, the family fortune became severely depleted following the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment when prohibition put the family brewery out of business.
Like numerous people who witnessed the Great Depression, Kurt Vonnegut focused on this time of economic turmoil in his writing. Vonnegut utilized his novels to chastise America’s attitude about money as well as its reaction to the Great Depression, both of which exacerbated the misery of the destitute. Similar to Vonnegut’s family, the victims of the Great Depression “will not acknowledge how, in fact, money is hard to come by” (Slaughterhouse-Five 165), and therefore, these people blame themselves (Slaughterhouse-Five 165). Consequently, the rich and powerful exploit this self-inflicted blame to justify their neglect of the lower classes, especially in the United States. As Vonnegut depicted in Slaughterhouse-Five, “Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold” (129). On the contrary, in a materialistic nation that equates wealth with success, impoverished Americans are often asked: “If you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich” (129).
However, the horrific incidents of World War II soon overshadowed the lingering poverty from the Great Depression. As a private in the United States Army, Kurt Vonnegut momentarily forgot about his economic woes when he observed the tragedies that came to inspire his most notable anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. This book was based on Vonnegut’s perspective as a prisoner of war during the Allied air raid which destroyed Dresden, Germany, on the fateful night of February 13, 1945 (Kulpa n.p.). The destruction of such an innocuous city and the deaths of 135,000 of its occupants only served to harden Vonnegut’s resolve that “war is futile and the decisions made by military leaders are often inscrutable” (Slaughterhouse-Five 114). War also possesses the ability to dehumanize and desensitize people, Vonnegut believed, asserting in Cat’s Cradle that, “Perhaps when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns” (254).
Additionally, during his service in World War II, Vonnegut witnessed the war’s power to shatter the lives of soldiers and their loved ones, reducing these soldiers to empty, broken objects. Like his fellow soldiers, Vonnegut possessed no immunity to the grisliness of the war.
In order to demonstrate the war’s devastating effects on his own life, Vonnegut modeled Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five after himself. World War II deteriorated Billy Pilgrim’s physique, so that he resembled a “filthy flamingo” (41), rather than a man. As time progressed, Billy Pilgrim’s condition worsened drastically, eliciting this response from his fellow British soldiers: “My God, what have they done to you, lad? This isn’t a man. It’s a broken kite” (97). While these British soldiers managed to preserve certain aspects of their humanity, Vonnegut also emphasizes that it is impossible for anyone to be humane in war. Even altruistic and benevolent individuals unintentionally commit acts of atrocity during war. For instance, the British troops in Slaughterhouse-Five utilized candles and soap to ensure their survival during World War II, but “the British had no way of knowing it, but the candles and soap were made from the fat of rendered Jews and Gypsies and fairies and Communists, and other enemies of the State” (5). Yet the tragedies of war are so numerous and pointless that it is inane to dwell upon each of them; “So it goes” ( Slaughterhouse-Five 5).
After realizing the senselessness of World War II, Kurt Vonnegut questioned the purpose of each successive war. He also became an ardent opposer of weapons of mass destruction, a concept which manifested itself in his writing of Cat’s Cradle. To Vonnegut, ignition of the Cold War, the bombing of Nagasaki, and the development of the atomic bomb, were grievous errors that could potentially contribute to the end of mankind. He believed that “the creators of the atomic bomb had been criminal accessories to murder most foul” (39). In an interview shortly after the detonation of the atomic bombs on Japan, Kurt Vonnegut admitted that although the bombing of Hiroshima may have possessed military significance, the bombing of Nagasaki was “the most racist, nastiest act by this country, after human slavery” (Barsamian n.p.). In Cat’s Cradle, the creation of ice-nine, a deadly weapon that ultimately destroyed the majority of the human race, was Vonnegut’s parallel to the atomic bomb (McGinnis n.p.). In addition, Vonnegut’s contempt toward the bombing of Nagasaki, an incident which “was purely blowing away yellow men, women, and children” (Caldwell n.p.), became evident in Cat’s Cradle, where a character named John authored a book entitled The Day the World Ended, which predicted a day where the human race became annihilated by ice-nine (McGinnis n.p.).
Kurt Vonnegut criticized the social repercussions of war as well, especially the abuse of technological advances for the sake of killing. He opted to portray scientists as fame-oriented individuals who are more concerned about making discoveries than about preserving human morality. In Cat’s Cradle, Newt Hoenniker shared an anecdote about the bomb and his father, Dr. Felix Hoenikker. Following the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo and the confirmation that America could effectively annihilate a city with one bomb, a scientist turned to Felix Hoenniker and said, “Science has now known sin” (17). As a response, Felix Hoenniker asked, “What is sin?” (17). Vonnegut also feared that the abuse of science could potentially lead to the premature end of mankind. For instance, Cat’s Cradle predicted the mass destruction of mankind, brought about by mad scientists who made a bomb that “wiped out the whole world” (47).
With the aid of his novels, Kurt Vonnegut also attempted to demonstrate the human tendency to neglect responsibilities and become susceptible to wickedness, even as one faces impending death. In the hypothetical end of the world portrayed in Cat’s Cradle, “There was a big sex orgy when everybody knew that the world was going to end, and then Jesus Christ Himself appeared ten seconds before the bomb went off” (50). In addition, Vonnegut focused on the flaws of the human race which engender widespread misery. Vonnegut asserted that people fail to find happiness because “They do not love others, and therefore they do not love themselves” (Cat’s Cradle 26). Furthermore, this lack of love among people and all living creatures aggravates the human tendency toward violence, which was highlighted by Frank Hoenniker’s actions in Cat’s Cradle. Frank enjoyed disposing of bugs into a Mason jar with his tablespoon in order to provoke them into fighting. Newt Hoenniker, Frank’s younger brother recalled that the bugs “won’t fight unless you keep shaking the jar” (59), juxtaposing the discordance of human nature to the relatively harmonious nature of other creatures. According to Vonnegut, this violence inevitably inhibits human progression. Featured in Cat’s Cradle, the Fourteenth Book in the Books of Bokonon is entitled “What can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?” It does not take long to read the Fourteenth Book, Vonnegut posits. It consists of one word and a period. This is it: “Nothing” (110).
Given the human inclination toward savagery and his own atheistic beliefs, Vonnegut often denounced religion in his works, since he believed that religion could easily be exploited to gain support for malicious objectives. This idea influenced several of Vonnegut’s written works, including Cat’s Cradle, in which Vonnegut satirized religion by creating the imaginary religion of Bokonon, a belief system that is happily “founded on lies” (3). Supposedly, the allure of this religion is the paradox of honesty and truth, which is a fact that its followers can relate to. Ironically, the first line of the Books of Bokonon states, “All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies” (4). Moreover, religion is such a lethal and persuasive force because its works are so eloquently written. As Vonnegut stated, “I don't care whether it's God or not, but the Sermon on the Mount is a masterpiece, and so is the Lord's Prayer. The two most radical ideas, inserted in the midst of conventional human thought, are E=mc2—matter and energy are the same kind of stuff—and Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Doxey 16). Furthermore, the conflicts between government and religion lead to extremely precarious circumstances. For example, in Cat’s Cradle, Bokonon’s declaration that “I said goodbye to government, and I gave my reason: that a really good religion is a form of treason” (173), portrayed the clash between church and state.
In addition to his own religious beliefs, Kurt Vonnegut also incorporated aspects of his personal life into his novels. As a result of his deployment to Dresden, Germany, in World War II, Vonnegut battled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the rest of his life. His damaged mentality inspired the creation of Billy Pilgrim, a character who experiences numerous flashbacks, which is a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Vees Gulani n.p.). Consequently, Billy Pilgrim exhibits an altered perception of time in Slaughterhouse-Five, in which he “time travels and sees himself as having come unstuck in time” (4). For instance, “Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day. He has walked through a door in 1955 and come out another one in 1941. He has gone back through that door to find himself in 1963. He has seen his birth and death many times, he says, and pays random visits to all the events in between” (28). Like real flashbacks, Billy cannot control the scenes he relives, and the moments he experiences are not necessarily pleasant. “He is in a constant state of stage fright,” he says, “because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next” (23).
Unfortunately, the doctors during Vonnegut’s time did not yet associate mental illness with war. Kurt Vonnegut highlighted this shortcoming in his famous book, Slaughterhouse-Five. When Billy Pilgrim returned from combat, the American society did not provide resources to help him recover from his war experiences at the bombing of Dresden, which induced his chronic suffering. Instead, the psychiatrist connected Pilgrim’s mental breakdown after the war with his traumatic near-drowning experience as a kid when his father taught him to swim by the method of sink-or-swim (44). This misconception emphasized the lack of understanding between veterans and the rest of society.
Simultaneously, Billy’s swimming fiasco paralleled the dysfunctional relationship of Vonnegut’s own family. The economic hardship and self-blame generated by the Great Depression further amplified his family’s tension when Vonnegut’s affluent parents lost their jobs during the fiscal crisis. This later influenced him to develop characters who felt worthless after failing to attain success. For instance, in Cat’s Cradle, Newt Hoenniker eloped with a midget dance named Zinka after he faced expulsion from Cornell University, while his sister, Angela Hoenniker cared for the family after their mother’s death (46). After her father’s death, Angela Hoenniker married Harrison Conners, a sleazy man who constantly drinks and cheats on her (79). Throughout the book, these character yearn to reach their potential, but they never get to opportunity to do so. Additionally, the structure of the Hoenniker family reflected Vonnegut’s own family arrangement. Following the Great Depression and the family’s drastic change in fortune, Kurt Vonnegut Sr. gave up on life and his mother, Edith, became addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs (Reed n.p.). Therefore, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. grew up in a household with ineffective parenting. As a parallel to Vonnegut’s fragmented family, Newt’s stunted growth in Cat’s Cradle symbolized the “lack of fostering love in the Hoenniker household” (35).
The intimate features of Vonnegut’s life influenced many of his works, but his favorite authors and pieces of literature proved to play a prominent role in his writing as well. For example, Felix Hoenniker’s invention of ice-nine and his gift of a frozen world in Cat’s Cradle yielded consequences which physically and morally related to “Dante’s nadir of despair, the ice-bound, lowest level of hell in The Divine Comedy” (Caldwell n.p.). Furthermore, Cat’s Cradle commences with the line: “Call me Jonah,” a biblical allusion to the prophet who was swallowed by a whale and released three days later (Caldwell n.p.). By gaining insight from the bible, Vonnegut explicitly connects his story to a biblical tale of disaster and redemption. This line is also a tribute to Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael,” the renowned beginning of Moby Dick (Caldwell n.p.). Most of all, inspired by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in which the earth is presumably “slowly destroyed by human parasitism,” Vonnegut allowed his pessimism for the future to taint his novels (Caldwell n.p.). In Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut indicated that pure joy ceases to exist, so humans must live by the “harmless untruths” (45) that make them “brave and kind and happy and healthy” (45).
Overall, Vonnegut perfected a dark humor in his satirical novels, making his audience chuckle despite the horrors that he described. His cynicism and liberal thinking primarily attracted the attention of college students, but he soon broke through to a larger audience with the publication of Slaughterhouse-Five and the film version of the novel that soon followed (Reed n.p.). By the early 1970s, Vonnegut had become a renowned individual, both for his writing skills as well as his willingness to challenge the status quo. His life of activism ended on April 11, 2007, when Kurt Vonnegut died after falling on the steps of his New York brownstone (Reed n.p.). Even though Kurt Vonnegut gained inspiration for many of his novels from the world, he inspired infinitely more people, and he was mourned globally as one of the greatest American writers of the second half of the 20th century.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – Life, Satirical Novels, and Dark Humor. (2024, Feb 24). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/kurt-vonnegut-jr-life-satirical-novels-and-dark-humor-essay
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