...Short Works by Kurt Vonnegut. Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works consists of 25 short stories most of which had previously appeared in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Ladies Home Journal, Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, Collier’s Magazine, Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, Esquire, Venture, and Cosmopolitan. The title story appeared in Playboy magazine the same year the collection was released. Eleven of the stories were reprinted from Vonnegut’s 1961 short story collection Canary in a Cat House (Vonnegut). This paper will focus on four futuristic science fiction stories from the collection. These stories, “Welcome to the Monkey House”, “Harrison Bergeron”, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, and “Unready to Wear” all share a dystopian science fiction theme. Science and technology are supposed to make the world a better place, but instead, Vonnegut concludes they only create a new set of problems (Farrell, “Science and Technology in the Works of Kurt Vonnegut”). Television is often a target of satire in much of his fiction from the 1950’s. He describes it as desensitizing and numbing while deceiving the masses (Werlock). Vonnegut uses satire and pessimism throughout these dystopian stories. Satire is a special form of literature that seeks to uncover ridiculous ideas and customs in a society (Mowery). Each story portrays a totalitarian government that proposes an irrational solution to genuine problems. Vonnegut uses dystopian...
Words: 3597 - Pages: 15
...All Men are Created Equally Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., author of "Harrison Bergeron" perhaps takes America's First Amendment that all men are created equally a little to seriously. His futuristic short story gives the reader a glimpse of what a truly equal society would be like. In Vonnegut's society various constraints are used to handicap and equalize the citizens; earphones that emit piercing noises to distract the thoughts of the gifted, heavy weights to weaken the strong, and hideous masks to hide ones natural beauty. Vonnegut's dystopian world exposes the dangers and disadvantages of a society with complete equality of all citizens portrayed by imagery, satire and a not so happy ending. In the beginning of the story the reader is given a glimpse of a truly equal society. Vonnegut emphasis his view of extreme equality and the role the government plays in enforcing it. The year was...
Words: 504 - Pages: 3
...are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” — from Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut In novels, essays, and plays produced during a career that spanned more than four decades, Kurt Vonnegut was the voice of several generations, a champion for those who, like himself, viewed society’s excesses and eccentricities with more than a little skepticism. Vonnegut was hailed as a “literary idol” whose works became “classics of the American counterculture,” Early Life Writer, novelist. Born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kurt Vonnegut is considered one of the most influential American novelists of the twentieth century. He blended literature with science fiction and humor, the absurd with pointed social commentary. Vonnegut created his own unique world in each of his novels and filled them with unusual characters, such as the alien race known as the Tralfamadorians inSlaughterhouse-Five (1969). After studying at Cornell University from 1940 to 1942, Kurt Vonnegut enlisted the U.S. Army. He was sent by the army to what is now Carnegie Mellon University to study engineering in 1943. Soon after his return from the war, Kurt Vonnegut married his high school girlfriend, Jane Marie Cox. The couple had three children. The Vonneguts also adopted his sister's three children after her death in 1958. Writing Debut Showing his talent for satire, his first novel, Player Piano, took on corporate culture and was published in 1952. More novels...
Words: 395 - Pages: 2
...A Reflection on Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Introduction Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, is about control. The setting is based in future America, where everyone is forced to be equal. Harrison, the main character, breaks the law as the country watches on TV. The story begins by mentioning Amendments 211 through 213, making the reader aware of limitations that could potentially be placed on their freedom. In this story of perception, government agents are the deciding factor of a person’s fate and they ensure that laws are enforced. Beautiful people must wear hideous masks to make them equal to the ugly, the brilliant wear ear devices that alter their thought process and make recollection near impossible and the strong wear weighted bags to make them equal to those who are weak (Vonnegut, 1961). Forced equality is questioned by the handicapped and the outcome is a controlled society. Harrison is used to represent the people who will protest against such laws and encourage others to support his cause. The central idea is that the government could never make a perfect world by enforcing total equality but they can place limitations on people. Discussion Vonnegut uses a satirical and humorous tone while presenting a serious topic to critique America in the 1960’s, both politically and socially. The political system in the story is egalitarianism; this is the belief that all people should be treated equally in every...
Words: 957 - Pages: 4
...”Welcome to the monkey house” by Kurt Vonnegut The story takes place in the not-so-distant future in an overpopulated world, with an over dominating government. There are way to few jobs and people are forced to take a special medicine, which make them feel numb from the waist down and not feel attracted to sex nor the other gender. The main character is a criminal mastermind named Billy the Poet, whose quest is to deflower the hostesses. The hostesses are women who help the citizens with committing suicide. The government are advertising suicide because of the world’s overpopulation. Billy the Poet kidnaps one of the hostesses named Nancy McLuhan, and deflowers her without abusing her in any way. At last Billy lets her go with a changed mind and a bottle of regular birth control pills. “Welcome to the monkey house” are from a novel collection by Kurt Vonnegut. The main character is, Billy the Poet. He is described as very dangerous and very wanted by the government, but he’s a good person who only wants the best for other people. Billy the Poet does not take his medication given by the government and he wants to let women off the medication too. Every women whose seen Billy and gotten deflowered by him, lies to the government to protect Billy. He is a rebel who fights against the government and fights for freedom of mankind. The hostesses, taken as prisoner by Billy, name is Nancy McLuhan and works at the Ethical Suicide Service. She’s a strong and wilful woman....
Words: 989 - Pages: 4
...Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut, the author of many amazing books, essays, and plays is also one of the most renounced authors of the 21st century. His ability to humor, entertain, and infrom the reader in issues of war, society, and religion has brought him much praise and even reproach. He has encountered many struggles to convey his life's work. Throughout many of Vonnegut's works, we are shown his ability to turn major events in his life into satirical dark humor. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis Indiana. He spent most of his life and adolesnce in Indianapolis and is very thankfull."What people like about me is Indianoplis" (The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial). Kurt graduated Shortridge High, where he was a writer and editor of his school newspaper. Later he attended Cornwell University. Kurt hoped to follow in his father and grandfather's footsteps in becoming an architect. Due to the economic crisis that fell in 1929 that lasted through the 1960s known as the Great Depression, Kurt was urged by his father to major in something else. He decided to study Biology and Chemistry. Later he attended Carnegie Institute of Techology and the University of Tennesse. At 20 years of age when World War II broke Vonnegut enlisted into the army. In 1944 in the Battle of the Bulge in Dreseden Germany,Vonnegut was captured and became a prisoner of war. Vonnegut and fellow POWs where kept to work in a factory that produced vitamins, and were sent to...
Words: 1061 - Pages: 5
...T. J. Rankl Mr. Beach ELA Block 3 20 December 2016 Trouble in Paradise: Vonnegut’s Use of Satire in “Harrison Bergeron” What would happen to the world if the people were literally equal in every aspect of their lives? "Harrison Bergeron," composed by Kurt Vonnegut, concentrates on equity physically and mentally unequivocally controlled by the administration in the year 2081; the wonderful are constrained to look monstrous, the physically gifted are required to wear weights. With these impediments making everyone so equivalent, the world turned out to be altogether different, odd, and normal. Be that as it may, the legislature has no right or motivation to push the entire world to be "… rise to each which way." To smother somebody's normal...
Words: 1706 - Pages: 7
...“Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1922, and ten years later The Great Depression began. In this time, Vonnegut had to adapt to living in impoverished conditions because of his father’s lack of financial means. The Great Depression was a crucial period in his childhood development; Vonnegut’s literary pieces are a reflection of what he observed the world to be through his own life experiences. The majority of his works are science fiction used to “[help] lend form to the presentation of this world view without imposing a falsifying causality upon it (Reed),” as Peter Reed mentioned in an autobiography about Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut believed that science fiction offers a perception into an everyday society, rather than escaping it. The extraordinary events he experienced throughout his life served as motivation and influenced him to write stories about the world; as a result, Vonnegut showed an immense appreciation about life in his literary pieces. Kurt Vonnegut continued to pursue his goal of demonstrating to the world how wonderful life is through creations in the graphic arts. In 1950, Vonnegut published his first short story, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect” followed by “The Sirens of Titan” (1959), “Cat’s Cradle” (1963), “Slaughterhouse-Five” (1969), and “Breakfast of Champions” (1973). The society in which Kurt Vonnegut was a part of highly valued the ideal of equality; the short story “Harrison Bergeron” was written to foreshadow the...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
...very familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and his abilities, as an author, to portray fantastic literature. He is particularly known for his uses of science fiction. Even his shorter stories and different books, that are not supposed to be science fiction genre, have sort of a sense of his wacky science fiction style. Kurt Vonnegut very often makes a connection to nature or the real world style with science fiction, mostly by the use of humor and irony. Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He passed away at the age of 85, on April 11, 2007. Kurt's parents worked hard, and both his grandfather and father were architects. His grandfather was the founder of Vonnegut Hardware Company in Indianapolis and was all about hard work and labor. Kurt Vonnegut majored in chemistry and was very interested in writing and graphic arts, which made it hard for him to connect with his father. Kurt decided to attend the University of Cornell after graduating from Shortridge High School in May of 1940. Vonnegut developed an early understanding for his writing ability, when he became the editor for The Cornell Daily Sun. Instead of following his passion for writing, he fell into his father's ways and enlisted in the U.S. Army to study vastly about mechanical engineering. To make matters worse, a couple of years after being enlisted, his mother committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills on Mother's Day of 1944. This was the same year Vonnegut got involved as...
Words: 2093 - Pages: 9
...The story, written by Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, has a more satirical effect than the director’s interpretation of Harrison Bergeron. Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity. The author Kurt Vonnegut used the elements of satire such as, exaggeration, irony, and symbolism, and those elements were better conveyed in the story than the film. The story was more satirical than the director’s interpretation in exaggeration.When Harrison removed his handicaps it was very exaggerated.This was after Harrison took off his handicaps,“But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons”(Vonnegut 168-169), It’s highly unlikely that Harrison could do that.This was when Harrison was dancing, “Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.”(Vonnegut 178-179),that is also very unlikely to happen.In the director’s interpretation, there weren’t many things that were over exaggerated, like Harrison Bergeron didn’t abandon the laws of gravity and motion in the director’s interpretation....
Words: 541 - Pages: 3
...Kurt Vonnegut Vonnegut’s readers will often find themselves misled or confused. His style of writing is organized randomness from his cynical point of view. In A Man Without A Country, Vonnegut shows the ugly truth about our government and his views on how it doesn’t work. Vonnegut’s perspective of family is also exceptionally candid. He is able to tie family life and values into politics. As a reader it is very hard to make out Vonnegut’s meaning because of his enormous amount of satire. Vonnegut’s strong beliefs in government and politics leave you wondering his true feelings about our government. In Vonnegut’s words, “George Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.” When Vonnegut says this he’s trying to show just how pathetic our government truly is. He sees the government as being such a big joke that it would make a fascinating reality television show. Anyone who watches reality Television shows can see just how impractical they are and how dumb people can become. He also explains within his words that average people who were C-students are running the government. It’s obvious that he feels as if the people given power and supremacy should not be elected to make the decisions for what is right and what is wrong within our country...
Words: 1324 - Pages: 6
...“Cat’s Cradle” written by Kurt Vonnegut is a satirical science fiction that scrutinizes the lies of religion, what the advancement of technology could mean for the human race, and the hypocrisy of science. He believes that religion is founded on lies, to benefit the people. Science and technology aren’t any better. The company in his story, General Forge and Foundry Company, researches to “expand knowledge”. The same company also created the atomic bomb that was dropped in Japan. Vonnegut indirectly but clearly delivers his beliefs and philosophies through his masterful use of character, plot, and setting. One of the literary elements Kurt Vonnegut used to create a novel filled with satire and philosophy was characters. By relating...
Words: 1048 - Pages: 5
...Equality is Not Equal to Perfection Harrison Bergeron, a story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., is set in year 2081 when multiples constitutional amendments have been made to ensure that every single U.S. citizen is entirely equal under the law: nobody is more attractive, more intelligent, or stronger in physical capabilities than anybody else. The theme made clear in this satire is that total equality is not an ideal worth striving for, but a mistaken goal that is dangerous in both execution and outcome. The U.S. government in this story moves to ensure that no one citizen is in any way superior to another. One aspect of this is in physical aspects: nobody is allowed to be exceptionally attractive, nor are they allowed to be stronger or quicker. Masks are worn over excessively good-looking faces, and bags stuffed with lead balls are worn around the necks of the exceptionally strong so as to slow them down and weaken them. When a news bulletin comes on the television and a ballerina is made to deliver the news, Vonnegut tells us that this ballerina had to have been the best out of all the dancers because “her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred-pound men” (233). Ballerinas have always been generally petite women in such that they are skinny and perhaps not as tall as other girls or women. Two-hundred-pound men would crush a ballerina with their strength. In the futuristic society Vonnegut has brought us to, it is necessary to give the same amount of physical handicap...
Words: 1172 - Pages: 5
...Harrison Bergeron, a story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., is set in year 2081 when multiples constitutional amendments have been made to ensure that every single U.S. citizen is entirely equal under the law: nobody is more attractive, more intelligent, or stronger in physical capabilities than anybody else. The theme made clear in this satire is that total equality is not an ideal worth striving for, but a mistaken goal that is dangerous in both execution and outcome. The U.S. government in this story moves to ensure that no one citizen is in any way superior to another. One aspect of this is in physical aspects: nobody is allowed to be exceptionally attractive, nor are they allowed to be stronger or quicker. Masks are worn over excessively good-looking faces, and bags stuffed with lead balls are worn around the necks of the exceptionally strong so as to slow them down and weaken them. When a news bulletin comes on the television and a ballerina is made to deliver the news, Vonnegut tells us that this ballerina had to have been the best out of all the dancers because “her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred-pound men” (233). Ballerinas have always been generally petite women in such that they are skinny and perhaps not as tall as other girls or women. Two-hundred-pound men would crush a ballerina with their strength. In the futuristic society Vonnegut has brought us to, it is necessary to give the same amount of physical handicap to a two-hundred-pound man...
Words: 1153 - Pages: 5
...8/3/12 Harrison Bergeron HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away. It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains. George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about. On the television screen were ballerinas. A...
Words: 2297 - Pages: 10
