Biography of Kurt Vonnegut

2394 Words5 Pages

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born to third-generation German American parents in the city of Indianapolis, year 1922, November 11th. While at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Vonnegut was heavily involved with the school’s daily newspaper, the first and only daily high school newspaper in our nation. During his time at Cornell University, Vonnegut became the school paper’s senior editor. World War II then began, and so Vonnegut joined our nation’s armed forces. Mother’s Day came in 1944, and during this time while Vonnegut was home on leave, his mother committed suicide. Later on while in the army, Vonnegut was sent to Europe where he was captured and made into a POW by Germans. He witnessed the 1945 bombing of Dresden, which was later said to have killed more civilians than the bombing of Hiroshima.

After the war Vonnegut studied anthropology at the University of Chicago and married his childhood sweetheart, Jane Marie Cox. In 1958, Vonnegut’s sister died of cancer, which was seemingly timely with her husband’s death-by-train-crash only hours earlier. Vonnegut adopted three of his sister’s four children, adding to his three biological ones at the time. Vonnegut is given a total of seven. In 1965 Vonnegut was the teacher of the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop, and had separated himself from his family in order to support them. This may have contributed to him and his wife’s estrangement in 1970. Nine years later they made their divorce official to the state. Vonnegut promptly afterward married photographer Jill Krementz. In 1982, the new couple adopted a young daughter, bringing Kurt Vonnegut’s sum of children to an impressive seven.

Although Kurt Vonnegut has always been a reader’s favorite, his works did not become cr...

... middle of paper ...

...ldly, level. The central conflict of Any Reasonable Offer is instead one that focuses itself upon one man. Harrison Bergeron features a central and obvious antagonist, where after I finished reading Any Reasonable Offer I found the Peckhams to not be very antagonistic but instead clever. Lastly, Harrison Bergeron can be seen as speaking out against a totalitarian civilization. Any Reasonable Offer does not speak out against any types of dangerous government control. It is instead an interesting sequence of events from one man’s life.

It may have taken him twenty years, but Vonnegut was finally able to make his name known to the world of literature. Today he is regarded as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. His career goes to show that becoming an accomplished author isn’t always easy or immediate, few authors are able to quickly jump to the top.

Show More
Related

  • Free Slaughterhouse-Five Essays: Dresden

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    The focal point of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is the devastating fire-bombing of Dresden in World War II, an event which was experienced by the real-life Vonnegut as well as the fictional Billy Pilgrim. Through the novel, Vonnegut renders his account of an occurrence which is, in itself, indescribable. In order to tell this story to the world, Vonnegut uses Billy Pilgrim's Tralfamadorian experience as a window that allows the reader some relief from the horrors of war. According to the author, the war was a traumatic experience which is virtually impossible to describe. As Vonnegut says in the introduction, " . . .I thought, too, that it [the novel] would be a masterpiece or at least make me a lot of money, since the subject was so big . . .but not many words about Dresden came from my mind then"(Vonnegut 2).

    Read More

  • Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five -- A Great American Novel

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Slaughterhouse-Five: Futile Search for Meaning

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kurt Vonnegut places his experiences and his views in the text.  He begins the book by stating, “All this happened, more or less.  The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true...I’ve changed all of the names.”  Viewing war as a sen...

    Read More

  • The Life of Billy Pilgrim in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade

    2034 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...dons the glimmer of hope that accompanies the fact that life has its moments of grandeur. He encourages the modern reader to escape the question "why me" and urges us to embrace a philosophy that consistently reminds us that even in the midst of the most cruel (and the most celebrated) events, humanity retains all of its virtue and vice. So it goes. Vonnegut allows us to laugh out loud, despite the tragedies of war and the anxiety of the post-modern world. His picture of the modern man is simultaneously dismal and hopeful. His unique style, satiric overview and astute ability to capture the multiple faces of mankind, properly place him in the realm of the most accomplished authors of the Twentieth Century.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, India and as a child he went through the Great Depression which hit Vonnegut's family very hard. Author William Rodney Allen in A Brief Biography of Kurt Vonnegut states, "When World War II broke out, Vonnegut was 16; at 20, he entered the army and was shipped off to Europe, where he almost immediately was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge," which tells us that he was a prisoner of war early on in his deployment. Vonnegut is moved to Dresden and survives the bombing accidently because the pris...

    Read More

  • Mother Night, Welcome to the Monkey House, and Harrison Bergeron

    3657 Words  | 8 Pages

    His most acclaimed work, Slaughterhouse-Five, is a twisted account of the Dresden bombing. He is still alive and writing. His most recent published work, Timequake, appeared in the December 1997 Playboy Magazine. Mother Night was Vonnegut's third novel and one his few works that contains no elements of science fiction. Though this novel is not one of his most critically acclaimed, it serves as a prime example of Vonnegut's skill as a black humorist and weaver of human absurdity.

    Read More

  • Unequality in Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Harrison Bergeron” starts with explaining the society within the story. It begins, “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,” (Vonnegut 158). With this startlingly different introduction, Vonnegut explains that everyone is equal but does not include how during this time. As the story progresses, the reader begins to see exactly how the citizens are “equal.”

    Read More

  • Effective Use of Irony and Satire in Cat's Cradle

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vonnegut's writing style throughout the novel is very flip, light, and sarcastic. The narrator's observations and the events occurring during the novel reflect a dark view of humanity which can only be mocked by humor. At the beginning of the novel the narrator is researching for a book he is writing. The book was to be about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the lives of the people who created the bomb. The narrator travels through the plot of the story, with characters flying in and out, in almost a daze. He is involved in events which are helplessly beyond his control, but which are inevitably leading to a destination at the end.

    Read More

  • Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five as an Antiwar Novel

    2286 Words  | 5 Pages

    a prisoner of war (POW) in Dresden, Germany. During that time he experienced the firebombing of Dresden, which affected him greatly. This event had around 135,000. casualties, which is about twice the number killed in Hiroshima by the atomic bomb (1969 Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse (Five) -.. Many claim that his involvement in the war is what made him write Slaughterhouse Five.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

    2383 Words  | 5 Pages

    Analysis of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five Section One- Introduction Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut Junior, was published in 1968 after twenty-three years of internal anguish. The novel was a "progressive work" after Vonnegut returned from World War II. Why did it take twenty-three years for Kurt Vonnegut to write this novel?

    Read More

  • Kurt Vonnegut - The Man and His Work

    5175 Words  | 11 Pages

    But what really forces Vonnegut to impose his presence on the text is his complete inability to remove himself at all from the act of communication at the core of any work of literature. He revels in that involvement. He has mentioned his desire, what he implies is a universal need of all human beings, for some "soul-deep fun." He uses this term as a synonym for greatness. And this has lead to some nasty comments in fiction workshops about stories that I've written: complaints of flat characters, cartoonish plotlines, non-directed criticism, overall pessimism and over-sentimentality for all things lowbrow. Needless to say, sometimes I feel, to varying degrees of pretension, like Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

    Read More

  • The Satire of Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Meeter, Glenn. "Vonnegut's Formal and Moral Otherworldliness: Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five," in Jerome Klinkowitz & John Somer (eds.), The Vonnegut Statement. USA: Delacourte Press/ Seymour Lawrence, 1973, 204-220.

    Read More

  • Comparing Themes in Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five

    1891 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout his career, Kurt Vonnegut has used writing as a tool to convey penetrating messages and ominous warnings about our society. He skillfully combines vivid imagery with a distinctly satirical and anecdotal style to explore complex issues such as religion and war. Two of his most well known, and most gripping, novels that embody this subtle talent are Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. Both books represent Vonnegut’s genius for manipulating fiction to reveal glaring, disturbing and occasionally redemptive truths about human nature. On the surface, Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are dramatically different novels, each with its own characters, symbols, and plot. However, a close examination reveals that both contain common themes and ideas. Examining and comparing the two novels and their presentation of different themes provides a unique insight into both the novels and the author – allowing the reader to gain a fuller understanding of Vonnegut’s true meaning.

    Read More

  • The Symbolism Of Black Humor In Cat's Crad

    3853 Words  | 8 Pages

    Vonnegut believes that writers can influence people's ideas profoundly. In one of his many speeches he stated the following:

    Read More

  • The Biblical Allusion of Lot's Wife in Slaughterhouse-Five

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, uses the biblical allusion of Lot’s wife looking back on the destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to parallel the story of Billy Pilgrim during the war and his experience after, when he returns to the United States. Although the reference is brief, it has profound implications to the portrayal of America during World War II, especially the bombing of Dresden. Although Lot’s wife’s action dooms her to turn into a pillar of salt, the narrator emphasizes her choice to indicate the importance of being compassionate and having hindsight. Ultimately, Slaughterhouse-Five critiques the American social attitude to disregard the unjust nature of its actions in World War II. Furthermore, Vonnegut’s novel explicates this by elucidating the horrors of war—especially in regard to the massacre of innocence, how it leaves the soldiers stagnant when they return home, and leaves them empty with an American Dream that cannot be fulfilled. In order to combat violence, the novel stresses that one must hold human life to a higher value and be compassionate towards others; America must acknowledge its mistakes so that the soldiers who fought and died for her so that the soldiers may move on.

    Read More

More about Biography of Kurt Vonnegut

Open Document