I first read Slaughterhouse-Five a few years ago, and it immediately became one of my favorite novels while its author, Kurt Vonnegut, became my favorite writer just as quickly. Vonnegut is best known for his novels, though he was also wrote poetry, plays, essays, and short fiction. His first novel, Player Piano, then named Utopia 14, was published in 1952 and his career spanned until the publication of his last book, Timequake, in 1997 and the release of two collections, one of essays and another of short stories in 1999.
Vonnegut was born in 1922, the son of a an architect and a mentally unstable mother who later committed suicide. Vonnegut studied at four different schools. First at Cornell University, which he dropped out of, to join the army. Then, studying mechanical engineering for the army, at Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee. Finally, working towards a master’s of anthropology at the university of Chicago.
Many of Vonnegut’s protagonists would be considered certifiably insane and even dangerous were they real people in our society. One of his most popular novels, Slaughterhouse-Five, which became a number one best seller after its publication in 1972 starred Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran and prisoner of war. The book opens with him writing a letter to his local paper to tell the story of his abduction and captivity in an alien zoo several years previous, and his ability to “jump” through time. Eliot Rosewater of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is another example of this Vonnegut trope. The son of a wealthy and powerful senator, Eliot suffers a breakdown after his divorce and takes up residence in an office building in a small town in Indiana and starts dispensing the family wealth to the town’s poverty stricken residents. Unquestionably a hero, this man who sleeps on an office couch, hardly ever leaves his “home,” and does not even own a toothbrush or deodorant would not be viewed as such in our world.
In a 2007 article, The New York Times cites a quote from this book as a summary of Vonnegut’s philosophy: “Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies – ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ “
That, I agree, is largely the point of Vonnegut’s literary vision. To bring out the unsung heroes of our world, those addled by our world, in order to stand against those things that he saw as our downfall. Those addled by war or denied opportunities because of their class. Those that were still able to find kindness.
Sources Cited:
Dinitia Smith, Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead At 84, The New York Times