Kurt Vonnegut By Sarah Welch

Dresden, February 1945 This was the destruction of Dresden. The Americans and British firebombed the German city for three days. Kurt Vonnegut was a survivor. But why was he there?

Vonnegut in WWII Kurt Vonnegut was a soldier in World War Two. Sometime during the Battle of the Bulge, from December to 1944 to January of 1945, Vonnegut was captured and held prisoner by the Germans. During the day, he and other POWs were forced to do manual labor. At night, he was held in the basement of a slaughterhouse that would eventually come to inspire his book, Slaughterhouse-Five

Dresden When the city of Dresden was firebombed, Vonnegut was still being held in the basement of the slaughterhouse. He and his fellow POWs as well as his German commanders were some of the few people to survive the firebombing. He was put to work pulling bodies out of the rubble and putting them in a mass funeral pyre.

Post-War When he was rescued in May of 1945 by the Russians, he went back to America as soon as possible. He then began writing his novels. Some of the most famous are Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions

Themes Throughout A lack of region or disdain for Christianity Government vs. civilians As portrayed through Attitudes of the two Appearance The buildings they live/work in

Religion In both Cat’s Cradle and The Sirens of Titan (the two works I read) there is one main character who takes advantage of unrest in the population to make his own religion where God is considered lackadaisical and uncaring. Because Vonnegut was a prisoner of war, he often felt that God had left him or had stopped caring for him. These thoughts are shown through the way he portrays Christianity and God.

Attitudes Jonah, the main character from Cat’s Cradle, is appointed ruler of the island of San Lorenzo within a week of arriving there for the first time. Because Jonah acquired power quickly, he seized the power and “[he] was already starting to rule.” He himself did not like the power, but he was abusing it immediately Vonnegut utilizes his characters to reflect how the Germans in charge were uncaring and tyrannical.

Appearance In Cat’s Cradle, the civilians are descibed as “thin, oatmeal-colored, and sickly.” The civilians in The Sirens of Titan are a mish-mash of oddballs: ugly, grossly obese, witch-like, and devilish. On the other side, the high and mighty government people are portrayed as having an elegant and refined outward appearance, yet a crude and evil core. As a POW, Vonnegut was able to see “what monsters” the Germans were.

Architecture Jonah’s company’s building is a “slender, prismatic, twelve-sided shaft, faced on all sides with blue-green glass that shaded to rose at the base,” while the hotel across the street from it has small rooms that have “neither telephone nor desk.” This shows just how massive the gap between the rich government and the poor populous must have been. Vonnegut was neither, so he was able to ascertain exactly how divided and corrupted Germany was.

Summary Vonnegut’s experience as a POW in Germany enabled him to see the cruelty of the German government not only to its prisoners, but to its own people. Kurt Vonnegut’s memories show through in his writing: the feelings of abandonment, the hatred towards people with high government positions, and the distaste towards those who abuse their powers.

Works Cited Vonnegut, Kurt, and Dan Wakefield. Kurt Vonnegut: Letters. New York: Delacorte, 2012. Print. Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat's Cradle. New York: Dell, 1969. Print. Vonnegut, Kurt. The Sirens of Titan. New York, NY: Dell Pub., 1988. Print.