Mother Night

Life is a Snake which Bites its Tail

Vonnegut uses the cyclical nature of life to counteract the perceived definitive nature of it. Vonnegut believes that all real life events, history, and time are circular; they have no determinable beginning or end. Each of Vonnegut’s novels stresses the notion that life is cyclical. In Breakfast of Champions, Vonnegut states that time, “Is a serpent which eats its tail” (205). This imagery shows Vonnegut’s depiction of time as a circle. According to Vonnegut time has no beginning, middle, or end, thus it is impossible to depict it in any linear form.

In Slaughter House Five, Vonnegut introduces the Tralfamadorians concept of time, which emphasizes the cyclical return embodied in Billy’s time travels (Wayne D. McGinnis, 118). Vonnegut believes that people perceive life in terms of an old fashion story book, “With leading characters, minor characters … and a beginning, middle, and an end” (215). However Vonnegut proves in his novel, Breakfast of Champions, that this is certainly not the case. He states, “I resolved to shun storytelling. I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. Nothing would be left out” (215) and that is exactly what he does. Vonnegut believes that “People have this illusion that when beginning, middle, and end are strung together in one story, a causal and teleological development is implied, and the identification of the cause driving events is what gives meaning to the story” (Daniel Cordle). Vonnegut’s goal is to eliminate this illusion and attempt to prove to his readers that it is not the structure of time or events which gives meaning to the story, it is all the moments combined which give the story its meaning.

Just as Von...

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...ally rescued by his “blue fairy god mother” right when he finally accepts his fate as a war criminal. Vonnegut’s use of irony, exaggeration and ridicule in Mother Night is constant throughout the book, from beginning to end, this novel is told in Vonnegut’s unique satirical tone, which he uses to expose and criticize people’s stupidity and willingness to conform and throw their ideas out the window for the sake of survival and acceptance.

Literary critic Peter J. Reeds states that Vonnegut’s “painful comic rendering of the form acknowledges not just the suffering that existence may impose, but the essential absurdity of the situation in which its randomness and incomprehensibility frequently place us” (37). The comedy in Vonnegut’s fiction is meant to express the depths and tragedies of the world in a way which is bearable enough for the reader to comprehend.