Breakfast of Champions: Plague of Unhappiness

1110 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of breakfast of champions vonnegut

Breakfast of Champions: Plague of Unhappiness

"The motto of Dwayne Hoover's and Kilgore Trout's nation E pluribus unum, Out of Many One" (9). Out of many characters the narrator chooses one, Kilgore Trout, to achieve success. He and Dwayne Hoover are main characters in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Breakfast of Champions (1973). This book is a microcosm of modern American society. Every character symbolizes a different part of the society. The main characters, Dwayne and Kilgore, are symbols; Dwayne representing the successful family man and business person, and Kilgore representing the lonely and unsuccessful people of the world. This novel reveals the misconception people have concerning the relationships between being wealthy and successful and being happy.

"We never discussed what kind of funeral you wanted," (18) said Kilgore Trout to his pet parakeet, and only friend. Kilgore was born in Bermuda. When he was young, he worked with his father trying to save the endangered Bermuda Erns. When an Ern would die, Kilgore had the gruesome task of measuring the dead birds wingspan. He seemed doomed from childhood. "The pessimism that overwhelmed him in later life very likely had its roots in the bittersweet mulch of rotting Erns" (31). This pessimism destroys every human relationship Kilgore Trout has. For this reason, Kilgore is a lonely middle-aged man expecting nothing more from his life than to die alone. The only way he outwardly expresses himself is through writing science fiction novels and short stories.

One man has taken interest in Kilgore's writing. His name is Mr. Rosewater, a very rich man who earned his riches by running coal mines in the mountains of West Virginia. In his eyes Kilgore Trout is a genius. Rosewater funds an extensive search to find Kilgore's address. Once he has the address, he sends Kilgore a fan letter. Kilgore perceives this letter as an invasion of his privacy. Rosewater insists he is not intruding and promises to make Kilgore famous. Trout says, "Keep the hell out of my body bag" (33). Rosewater uses his influences to get Kilgore invited to an art show in Midland City. At this art festival, Kilgore will be one of the main speakers. Kilgore, with no intentions of going at first, says, "I'm not going. I don't want out of my cage" (36). The same pessimism that is causing him to live a lonely, unfulfilled life is also the reason he decides to go the art festival.

Show More
Related

  • A Bridge To Wiseman's Cove Analysis

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    James Moloney's coming-of-age novel, A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove, illustrates the life of an adolescent boy called Carl Matt. Through the characters of Carl, Harley and Maddy, Moloney demonstrates how every human being needs love and acceptance. Carl and Harley experience similar things because they are brothers and have both received very little or no love, whereas Maddy gained love from her family though she didn’t realise, and so went elsewhere to find love.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Catcher In The Rye And The Great Gatsby

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the history of literature, a great deal of authors has tried to reveal a clear understanding of the American Dream. Whether it is possible to achieve lies all in the character the author portrays. The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye stand as prime examples of this. F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, the authors of these titles, respectively, fashion flawed characters, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, with one vital desire: the longing to gain what they can’t have; acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Each retaining characteristics that shows their differences and similarities in opinion of the world around them.

    Read More

  • Gus in James Duncan's The River Why

    2336 Words  | 5 Pages

    James Duncan’s book entitled, The River Why, focuses around the main character, Gus, and how he changes throughout the book. In this book Gus is discovering what life really is and that the whole world does not revolve around fishing. After moving out of his erratic house he spends all of his time fishing at his remote cabin, but this leaves him unhappy and a little insane. He embarks on a search for him self and for his own beliefs. Duncan changes Gus throughout the book, making Gus realize that there are more important things to life than fishing, and these things can lead to a happy fulfilled life, which in turn will help Gus enjoy life and fishing more. Duncan introduces a character, Eddy, who significantly changes Gus’s views on what he needs in his life and she gives Gus a sense of motivation or inspiration. Eddy changes Gus by their first encounter with each other, when Eddy instills in Gus a need to fulfill his life and when they meet up again, completing his need. Fishing is Gus’s first passion but he loses it after he puts all of himself into it, and when Eddy comes into his picture Gus feels a need to have more in his life, like love. Through finding love he re-finds his passion for fishing and learns more about himself. When Eddy and Gus finally get together, he sees this “equilibrium” between his old passion, fishing, and his new one, Eddy. Duncan’s use of Eddy gives Gus a new found sense of purpose and to have a more fulfilled life is a critical step in Gus’s development as a character. This is why Eddy is the most important character to this book, because she gives Gus inspiration to find himself.

    Read More

  • Themes in The Boat by Alistair MacLeod

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story describes the protagonist who is coming of age as torn between the two worlds which he loves equally, represented by his mother and his father. He is now mature and is reflecting on his life and the difficulty of his childhood as a fisherman. Despite becoming a university professor and achieving his father’s dream, he feels lonely and regretful since, “No one waits at the base of the stairs and no boat rides restlessly in the waters of the pier” (MacLeod 261). Like his father, the narrator thinks about what his life could have been like if he had chosen another path. Now, with the wisdom and experience that comes from aging and the passing of time, he is trying to make sense of his own life and accept that he could not please everyone. The turmoil in his mind makes the narrator say, “I wished that the two things I loved so dearly did not exclude each other in a manner that was so blunt and too clear” (MacLeod 273). Once a decision is made, it is sometimes better to leave the past and focus on the present and future. The memories of the narrator’s family, the boat and the rural community in which he spent the beginning of his life made the narrator the person who he is today, but it is just a part of him, and should not consume his present.

    Read More

  • Hayden Carruth's Monday At The Border

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout his villanelle, “Saturday at the Border,” Hayden Carruth continuously mentions the “death-knell” (Carruth 3) to reveal his aged narrator’s anticipation of his upcoming death. The poem written in conversation with Carruth’s villanelle, “Monday at the River,” assures the narrator that despite his age, he still possesses the expertise to write a well structured poem. Additionally, the poem offers Carruth’s narrator a different attitude with which to approach his writing, as well as his death, to alleviate his feelings of distress and encourage him to write with confidence.

    Read More

  • Enjoy Life Foods Case Analysis

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    Enjoy Life Foods’ mission statement is to deliver safe and allergen-free snacks, but not free from taste. The products that Enjoy Life Foods make are certified gluten-free, verified non-GMO, and free from the top eight common allergens identified by the FDA. After Scott Mandell founded Enjoy Life Foods in 2001, Enjoy Life Foods released 12 bakery items in the following year and entered the Canadian market in 2005 ("Our History | Enjoy Life Foods”). With Enjoy Life Foods expansion in the market, Inc. magazine recognizes their company on its list of “Fastest Growing Private Companies” through 2007-2010.

    Read More

  • Nt1330 Week 3 Individual Assignment

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    Information retrieval could be expanded to the two alternative products: Samsung and Galaxy Nexus. Therefore, as a part of my decision-making process, I would have to use the evaluative criteria, which refers to the products, the recognition of its functions, features, attributes, and benefits of use. The features and characteristics that best meet my needs would be design, price, size, color, durability, life of the battery, service, etc. For example, Apple has long been practiced using a bunch of aluminum and glass through which almost all of their products look great. In addition, aluminum is very practical and does not show fingerprints. Galaxy Nexus has the smallest screen size. The tablet can be ideal companion for watching video and reading books. Samsung tab has the best size and weight to all comparable models. All of the suppliers of the tablets provide with a maintenance services, returned-goods policies, financing and many other services for the

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Articles Of Confederation

    500 Words  | 1 Pages

    The fear of a strong national government and fear that states would dominate each other in federal government. Which lead to the Articles giving more power to the states, not the central government. In the Revolutionary war people did not want a government like Great Britain which is Monarchy. Monarchy is the government in which central government is where all power is held, and you are not represented in government, political holders stay in power for life, not in intervals or

    Read More

  • Articles Of Confederation Dbq

    456 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Articles of Confederation, one of the first attempts at a nation-wide government, was created in November of 1777 (Roark p. 229), though it was not adopted until 1781 (Roark p. 230). Instead of a large and powerful central government, many of the framers sought a looser confederacy of states, with a central government that could only declare either war or peace, engage in foreign relations, establish a postal service, and regulate trade (Roark p. 229). They also sought to create a government that would not have an executive branch and would be unable to issue direct taxes. In essence, the framers did not want to create the very type of sovereign power that they had just rebelled against.

    Read More

  • Investigation of the Heat Energy Produced by Combustion of Various Alcohols

    2704 Words  | 6 Pages

    From working out how much fuel has been used I can work out how much

    Read More

  • Comparing The Enthalpy Change Of Combustion Of Different Alcohols

    3136 Words  | 7 Pages

    = 3 ´ E(C-H) + 1 ´ E(C-O) + 1 ´ E(O-H) + 1.5 ´ E(O=O)

    Read More

  • Essay On Edgar Allan Poe

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting poems and morbid stories will be read by countless generations of people from many different countries, a fact which would have undoubtedly provided some source of comfort for this troubled, talented yet tormented man. His dark past continued to torture him until his own death. These torturous feelings were shown in many of his works. A tragic past, consisting of a lack of true parents and the death of his wife, made Edgar Allan Poe the famous writer he is today, but it also led to his demise and unpopularity.

    Read More

  • The Articles of Confederation

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the period directly following Cornwallis’s surrender, the fresh nation discovered a new task, governing their now-sovereign territories. A meeting of the minds, of the upper echelon of society, was convened to draft a document that would lay out the blueprints for the inaugural government. The resulting document was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles turned out to be a horrible system in practice. In theory they prevented central abuse of power by not allocating relevant power to the government and disallowing a head of state, a president. States squabbled with one another and resembled something of an early day United Nations. The Federal government could do nothing to settle inter-state disputes, nor could they levy taxes, hold a military, or enforce laws. Needless to say the government projected a national and international front that was poor, weak, and inefficient. The very founders who sought a limited government new that vast change was needed, and scrapping the Articles altogether was not out of the question.

    Read More

  • Impacts of WTO on Trading Countries

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    The WTO isn’t a perfect organization by any means, but it does try to regulate tariffs and taxes and occasionally does end up helping a few poor countries out. Without the WTO, would the world be a different place? America needs it, this much we know, but do all the other countries? Many protestors would argue that no, the world does not need the WTO and everyone should stick to its own domestic issues. However, others might say yes, the WTO can be of some use when dealing with particularly remote countries that might not have a chance to trade with anyone else otherwise. In either case the facts have been shown on what the WTO is, why it is here, what it does and how it effects trading.

    Read More

  • The World Trade Organization: The Evolution Of The World Trade Organization

    1343 Words  | 3 Pages

    Today, the WTO membership numbers 146 which comprises of approximately 97 per cent of the worlds’ trade (www.WTO.org). The evolution of GATT to the WTO was a significant step towards liberalising markets and ushered in a new era of free trade. Although the WTO is still a relatively young international institution, its origins are rooted in the Bretton Woods conference following the end of World War II. The WTO has evolved to cover areas such as trade in goods and services as well as Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and continues to provide the key disciplines affecting international trade.

    Read More

More about Breakfast of Champions: Plague of Unhappiness

Open Document