In the short story “2BR02B”, written by the marvelous author Kurt Vonnegut, he is not advocating population control; although, he is exposing the future humanity will live if there is no consciousness regarding population growth. Throughout the story, Vonnegut paints vivid yet morbid descriptions of life before population control. “ ‘In the year 2000,’ said Dr. Hitz, ‘before scientists stepped in and laid down the law, there wasn’t even enough drinking water to go around, and nothing to eat but sea-weed--and still people insisted on their right to reproduce like jackrabbits. And their right, if possible, to live forever’ "(Vonnegut, 6). Dr. Hitz is hinting at a world that has reached its maximum capacity. Instead of controlling the issue before …show more content…
it got gigantic, humanity once again waited until the very last minute to come up with a drastic solution. On the path to joy, people only think about themselves. Having many children is not an action that benefits the majority, but one that aids individuals in achieving personal happiness. However, it is ironic how on the road to elation, all people end up in extreme misery.
In the end, all individuals to some degree, possess vast amounts of selfishness. Sadly, rules are the only tool that aid humans into breaking out of the monotonous routine of self-centeredness. When rules are harsh, humans gain consciousness of their actions. Vonnegut is attempting another method to get humanity to realize their current issue of overpopulation by disclosing life after population laws are implemented. One of the last scenes of the story illustrates the feelings of the main character when he has to decide which one of his triplets would survive. " ‘What man in my shoes wouldn’t be happy?’ said Wehling. He gestured with his hands to symbolize care-free simplicity. ‘All I have to do is pick out which one of the triplets is going to live, then deliver my maternal grandfather to the Happy Hooligan, and come back here with a receipt’ " (Vonnegut, 6). With some extreme sarcasm, Mr. Wehling criticizes population control and makes it the paramount cause of his sorrow. This situation depicts how Kurt Vonnegut criticizes the psychological dangers of regulations concerning the expansion of population while indirectly emphasizing that, that is the direction the world is headed
towards. Raising awareness regarding the dangers of population control is the key to solving the prominent issue. If humans do not learn self-control and deeply analyze the repercussions of all of their actions, life will eventually become a series of despicable events. The day humans develop the ability to be conscious not only of themselves but of their surroundings, will be one where the need for population control will no longer exist. Ultimately, in “2BR02B,” Vonnegut presents the reader with an accurate portrayal of their future if no actions are taken to stop the exponential growth of population; however, he never implies that he is favoring population control.
“Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.” Stated Abraham Lincoln. That quotes applies to Slaughterhouse-Five because even when you think you have conquered something and achieve the victory doesn’t mean that it will last long. Billy Pilgrim is the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. Billy Pilgrim is non-heroic in the anti-war novel which makes the theme of the book Slaughterhouse-Five a man who is “unstuck” in time.
For a novel to be considered a Great American Novel, it must contain a theme that is uniquely American, a hero that is the essence of a great American, or relevance to the American people. Others argue, however, that the Great American Novel may never exist. They say that America and her image are constantly changing and therefore, there will never be a novel that can represent the country in its entirety. In his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes about war and its destructiveness. Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, an unlikely hero, mentally scarred by World War Two. Kurt Vonnegut explains how war is so devastating it can ruin a person forever. These are topics that are reoccurring in American history and have a relevance to the American people thus making Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five a Great American Novel.
Relationships and Interdependence in the Works of Kurt Vonnegut While on the surface Kurt Vonnegut's works appear to singularly contain the pessimistic views of an aging, black humorist, his underlying meanings reveal a much more sympathetic and hopeful glimpse of humanity that lends itself to eventual societal improvement. As part of Vonnegut's strategy for enhanced communal welfare, the satirist details in the course of his works potential artificial family groups to connect the masses and alleviate the lonely.
I think one thing that Vonnegut is trying to show us is that man too easily accepts things as valid without questioning. Refering to this, Newt, another character, says, "No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's…No damn cat, and no damn cradle" (114).
One of the best, most valuable aspects of reading multiple works by the same author is getting to know the author as a person. People don't identify with Gregor Samsa; they identify with Kafka. Witness the love exhibited by the many fans of Hemingway, a love for both the texts and the drama of the man. It's like that for me with Kurt Vonnegut, but it strikes me that he pulls it off in an entirely different way.
To sum up, Vonnegut criticizes an illusion of a utopia by punishing individuality and using technology to control society. The pressure of having a perfect society was important to be sustained. This is still a prevalent issue to this day as many nations struggle to achieve this goal. Vonnegut takes notice of the society’s lies and uses “Harrison Bergeron” to
... compassion when it comes to being a human being. The book examines the hypocrisies in American culture and life and the things that humans base their life on through the use of death, satire, and time travel. Vonnegut’s goal is for the readers to re-examine themselves, their morals, values, lives, and make their own decision on which option is truly the best option through a unique twist and new perspective on them.
“An Essay on the Principle of Population” is written by Thomas Malthus where he outlines his theory on population growth. He thought that if population continued to grow, food production wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand and he believed that many people would die due to famine. Either people would have to use more contraception to drop the birth rate, or the death rate would increase due to wars, disease or
Vonnegut was using irony as a basis to teach this lesson to his readers. He uses a “utopia” which means a perfect society. Even in the far future only some problems were solved, but this isn’t the only literary element to develop this lesson. Or when Mr. Wehling is about to have triplets. This makes the audience think it’s going to be a beautiful moment, but it’s the worst
Summary: This article is about Sir David’s stance on population control. He claims that it is a “huge area of concern” and that the world will be disastrous if no one does anything to help control the issue. He discusses the severity, solutions, and sensitivities of population control. Sir David says that if no one attempts to solve the problem, the natural world will do so instead. He believes people should keep discussing the issue and put it on people’s agendas in order to solve it. There are three sensitivities surrounding the issue: the privilege to have children, religion, and world population being centered around Africa and Asia. This article provides the reader with Sir David’s view on population control, the areas of concern, and
Kurt Vonneghan through his writing is able to show a dystopia within a utopia by making clever hints and using descriptive language. In the world he has created in “2BR0BR”. From first glance you see a world within a system of a controlled society. Which is not presented until the audience is shown the full story. The start of the story goes into the life of Mr. Wheeling who’s wife is about to have triplets. An achievement to some; only in this world the human population is controlled. Which leaves only one option in order to keep the children. Three people need to take their place. This creates a conflict for our main character Mr.Wehling who ultimately met his fate when he decided to take matters into his own hands. With the society's rules
Overpopulation remains the biggest and toughest problem that needs to be solved because of the future consequence that it may produce such as lack of resources to feed the people. Today’s population rise could be traced from as early as the stone ages to as late as the industrialization era (Penfound, 1968). The population before Jesus Christ took 40,000 years to double with a 2% growth rate. In 1850, the human population was at one billion people and then rose to two billion just eighty years later in 1930. Three decades later in 1960, it reached three billion, and in 1975 it ballooned into four billion people (Howard, 1969). Paul R. Ehrlich, author of the book, “The population bomb” said in 1992 that the earth will be facing “the need to support at least twice its present population of humans whether the earth’s life support systems’ uncertainty of sustainability” (Daily and Ehrlich, 1992). He also projected that in 2025, the population of Earth will be at 8.5 billion, and eventually level off to 11.6 billion in 2150, based on “positive assumptions of contin...
The Book of Genesis tells the story of creation of man. God said to man, "be fruitful and increase in numbers; fill the earth and subdue it." Prior to the nineteenth century, it was believed that God would provide for those who came into the world (Day 101). But, in 1798, this view was shaken by Thomas Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population, in which he concluded that while population increases geometrically, agricultural production only increases arithmetically. Current evidence shows that this theory may not be far from the truth. The world population reached 6 billion on October 12, 1999, and is expected to reach 9.3 billion by 2050! The impact of population growth is already felt by a majority of nations. The U.S. population has increased by 78% since 1950. Growing at 3,000,000 per year, U.S. population is expected to approach half a billion people in 50 years. A number of factors drive this growth. At the most basic level, it is because far more people are born each year than die. Advances in nutrition and health care have increased survival rates and longevity for much of the world, and shifted the balance between births and deaths.
In the year 1987 the human population that inhibited the Earth was about 5 billion people. That number then went up to 6 billion people in 1999. Currently there are 7 billion people that occupy the world. As it can be seen that population number keeps increasing faster as the years go by. Yet no one seems to pay it much attention, let alone the government. Population control is essential for the world to continue and for the human race to avoid extinction.
Ellis, in Walker’s view, scientific evidence has shown that environment and anthropomorphic harm has been caused to overpopulation, calling Ellis’s view “nonsense.” Although the earth has limited resources, Ellis debates that “there is no such thing as carrying capacity.” All living beings on earth will be agonised as they die off due to erosion of natural resources, mainly food and water. Modern humans, however, are an exception to this, as they are innovative. Although Ellis’s predication states that, “humans have altered natural environments so as to increase the carrying capacity for our species,” Walker makes the claim that, “past performance does not guarantee future result.” Walker concludes by answering the question begged by Ellis in saying that; counteracting overpopulation is: “not just silly, it is dangerous