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Chance and Fate
"Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the
past, the present, and the future" (SF 60). In one sentence, this
is Vonnegut's view of humankind's free will: Since all moments in
time exist simultaneously, how can we change any one of them?
Vonnegut goes to great lengths to make this point, playing
with the semantics of the question, but always coming to the same
conclusion. The question of "Why me?" is often asked (SF 76-7,
91; BC 44), with the answer being there is no answer, it just is.
Vonnegut also likes to declare that we have no choice in matters,
that we can't change a thing (SF 117, 151, 154, 207, 210; BC 32,
103; S 56; J 60, 87, 158).
These two views not only tie in nicely with Vonnegut's
perception of time, but they also coordinate well with his view
that nobody is ridiculous, bad, or disgusting (SF 8), for how can
a person be bad if that person has no say over the past, present,
or future? We are rendered neutral being (SF 198), mere robots, in
essence, which is one of the major themes of Breakfast of
Champions (3).
Yet, afloat in the midst of all these assertions that we are
trapped in amber, Vonnegut does not completely declare that chance
- free will - is out of the question. IIn Breakfast of Champions he
insinuates that free will is something we maybe once had as a race
or all had as individuals, but we gave it away to a manifestation
of God, or God took it away and we could get it back from God
should we want it back, which we don't (73), or should She/He
decide to give it back (295).
Two other comments Vonnegut makes leave open the door that
might allow in free will/chance. The first occurs in Slapstick
when he is recalling Alice, his sister. Alice never saw her awful
luck as being anything other than accidents in a very busy place.
To this, Vonnegut writes, "Good for her" (13). Then, near the end
of Jailbird, Starbuck realizes that if the chess- playing machine
he received as an old man had been invented when he was a kid,
then Alexander Hamilton McCone would never have needed to start
playing games with the young Starbuck, so Starbuck would never
have gone to Harvard, and his life would have been very different
(278).
While Vonnegut does leave the door open, his numerous
references to the question of "Why?", and the statements that we
have no choice, reveal that he is a believer in a definite Fate.
However, Vonnegut is wise enough to realize that he doesn't have
all the answers, and that should he receive enough evidence on the
side of Chance, he would have no trouble believing in it.
Religion
Vonnegut grew up in an atheistic family, but even though he
isn't religious, he sees religions as being good in that they
provide comforting little lies for people, and an extended family,
too (J 80).
Vonnegut establishes his non-belief in a supreme deity through
Billy Pilgrim. The crucifix that hung on the wall in Billy's room
when he was a child represented a dead man, and that dead man was
Billy's Christ (SF 38). God is personal; he is whoever you want
her to be (J 73, 77).
One of Vonnegut's complaints with Christianity is that it
teaches its followers to be so cruel. When Kilgore Trout wrote The
Gospel from Outer Space, the conclusion the visitor from outer
space reached about what the Gospels taught was this: "Before you
kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected" (SF
109). By the time of the writing of Jailbird, Vonnegut has become
even more appalled by the Gospel, for in it is this line: "'Depart
from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil
and his angels.'" These words "are surely the inspiration for the
notorious cruelty of Christians" (81). If nothing else, the
Creator of the Universe has a weird, if not twisted, sense of
humor (BC 160).
In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kilgore Trout blesses us with a brief
little speech that satirizes Christianity. In this speech, Trout
tells a fellow guest at Billy and Valencia Pilgrim's anniversary
party that God listens to everything she says, and is writing down
everything she does. On Judgement Day, Trout continues, God goes
over all the things she said and did, and if it turns out that
they're bad things instead of good things, that's too bad, for
she'll burn forever and ever, and the pain of the burning will
never stop. The lady he tells this to turns gray and becomes
petrified. She believes Trout. Trout laughs so hard at her
ignorance that a salmon egg flies out of his mouth and lands in
her cleavage (172). The reason Trout finds this so amusing is
because he knows that religion is merely a tool for manipulating
the world (202).
One of the major religious themes of Slapstick and Jailbird
deals with the use of and need for rituals in religion. The
previously mentioned pages of Slapstick (44, 204) that deal with
the comforts of rituals in general can easily be applied to the
sacraments and prayers that are constantly repeated in church
services. Part of the allure of these rituals is that they free us
from having to think (J 25), which is always a comfort, because
it's impossible to fail then (make the wrong decision).
Another way in which religion keeps us from having to think is
by establishing a doctrine for its followers that is easy to
understand. The Christian Bible says not to kill, and for most
Christians, this isn't hard to understand. If a Christian should
become very upset with someone and be contemplating killing this
person, they need only to remember the Sixth Commandment, "Thou
shalt not kill." Their misery over deciding whether to kill this
person or not is over; God has given them the answer. Now they can
relax and be happy, for they have nothing to talk about again. For
Arpad Leen, his happiness was the religion of working for Mary
Kathleen O'Looney, Mrs. Jack Graham, the owner of RAMJAC. Mary
Kathleen gave Arpad very explicit directions, and he merely had to
carry them out. This was easy. This was happiness for Arpad Leen.
"All happiness is religious" (J 238).
An outstanding analysis that Vonnegut makes of religion is
that religious people need to have a living deity, one that is
alive and able to control them, so they don't have to think. Mary
Kathleen and Arpad Leen are used as examples again to make this
point. Arpad, like everyone other than Walter Starbuck, doesn't
know, for approximately two years, that Mary Kathleen is dead. So
he goes on worshipping her, following her orders to "'acquire,
acquire, acquire'" as he always had before (J 270). When Arpad
finds out that Mary Kathleen is dead, he has only one option: Find
another deity to serve (271). This, Vonnegut knows, is just like
Christianity. Jesus had to rise from the dead, or his religion
would have been no good. Since he is still alive, he is still
calling the shots, still in charge, making decisions for his
followers. This leads to a very shallow faith, because Christians
are always merely doing what the Bible tells them to do, or what
other Christians tell them the Bible is telling them to do
(J 71). No thought, questioning, or enlightenment is involved.
Only in Slapstick does Vonnegut give a detailed perspective of
what he thinks the afterlife is like, and he gives his opinion
many times throughout the novel. He gives it early in the novel
(60), and he gives it late (234). He gives it in between (143). He
lets the reader know that the afterlife is boring, boring, boring;
it is infinitely more tiresome than the life we're currently
living (85). Vonnegut has cut between the paths to Heaven and
Hell, establishing an afterlife that more resembles a drab nursing
home.
The appearance in Slapstick of the Church of Jesus Christ the
Kidnapped is a playful mockery of the bizarre qualities of all
religions (185). The followers of this religion are constantly
looking behind chairs and under plates and glasses for the
kidnapped Jesus. The absurd ritual of constantly jerking one's
head about to try to catch a glimpse of the missing savior is
really no preposterous than the drinking of the Christ's blood
every week in Catholic and Lutheran church services.
A major problem Vonnegut has with the Christian religion is
how Christians like to focus on the hell-fire of the New
Testament, and ignore the Sermon on the Mount. In the prologue of
Jailbird, Vonnegut recounts a lunch encounter he had with Powers
Hapgood, a Harvard man who dedicated his life to helping working
people get their fair share. Hapgood had spent the morning before
the lunch on the witness stand telling stories about his
adventures as part of labor history. When the judge asks him why
he, a man with such a fine education and from such a distinguished
family, does what he does, Hapgood answers, "'Because of the
Sermon on the Mount, sir'" (19). Vonnegut can't understand why
more Christians don't take this approach to life. The Sacco and
Vanzetti case, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our
country's history, is an example of this (J 21). All they wanted
was for everybody to have food and a place to live, and it cost
them their lives. This country of ours, which so many politicians,
especially conservative politicians, want to turn into, basically,
a Christian state (i.e., reinstitute prayer in public schools,
make abortions illegal, teach creationism in science classes,
etc.), totally ignores the teachings of Christ that don't support
their agenda, such as the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus telling
the rich young man that to attain eternal life the young man had
to sell all he had and give that money to the poor (Matthew
19:16-30). But like the rich young man, the rich, conservative
politicians of our country will never change our capitalist system
in favor of the socialism that Jesus taught (J 59). For though
there were no limits to Jesus's charity, the Christians with money
in the United States, and most of the rest of the world, have
strict limits to their charitable giving (J 189, 190).
Politics and History
Through the voice of Walter Starbuck, Vonnegut admits to being
a socialist, to the extent that all people should have their basic
needs taken care of, that all armies and national boundaries
should be abolished, and the Family of Man should be established.
"The only people who would be excluded from such a friendly and
merciful society would be one who took more wealth than he or she
needed at any time" (J 57). Socialism can work; Vonnegut has
personally seen it work (SF 70). However, he realizes that it will
be nearly impossible for socialism to become a world-wide reality
due to the greed of wealthy people who don't want to share their
wealth (BC 13). All the while these rich people, many of whom are
politicians, complain about the rising crime rates and the
incredible amount of drug usage in this country, while never
allowing themselves to see or admit that crime and drug usage are
the result of the uneven distribution of wealth (BC 70-1).
The United States has committed great sins - greed, slavery,
genocide, criminal neglect (BC 293). We have wiped out the Native
Americans as a political policy (J 27). Vonnegut's point is that
we are all guilty of these atrocities, though some people more
than others. His blanket refutation of the Great Man Theory of
history (S 224; J 278), and his assertion that all politicians are
the same - they're enthusiastic chimpanzees (BC 88) - is enough to
show that we are all at least somewhat culpable for the atrocities
that have been committed, for we are the ones who have either
supported the chimpanzees in their policies, or have too silently
protested them. In fact, many of us are Fascists because we have
made the nation sacred (BC 180). However, many of the problems
that confront us today can be traced back to the enthusiastic
chimpanzees that were writers of the Constitution, who established
the precedent of political disenfranchisement based on wealth,
connections, and color (S 53). This allowed a few rich white men
to set themselves up as the procurers of this country, to debate
hypocritically about the welfare of all mankind (S 157). One of
the great accomplishments of the government issued artificial
extended families of Slapstick is that it allowed democracy to
work, for democracy can really only work and flourish if it's kept
small-scale (215).
Jailbird is the most political of the four novels. It takes
only until the third paragraph of the book for Vonnegut to show
his contempt for the government, which stems all the way back to
the way the FBI executed John Dillinger (9). From here he moves on
to make the point that governments, usually on the state or local
level, will willingly make laws that are contrary to the
Constitution if the law will benefit big business, which is to
say, themselves (30). Politicians make these laws, not only for
their own financial benefit, but because they feel they have to
control everybody, and because they feel they know what's best for
us (63).
One of the major problems with governments is that they are,
of necessity, Ponzi schemes; that is, they accept enormous loans
they know they will never repay (94). Of course, that doesn't
matter to the politicians, because they skim money from the loans,
and/or benefit business-wise from the capitalism these loans
support, and they are not held personally accountable for paying
back the loans. Amazing. The humorous thing about all of this is
that we keep electing presidents to run the country, when we all
know our government is so out of control that the president can
only pretend to be in charge (132).
The Environment
At the time of the writing of Jailbird, politicians cared not
at all about the environment because it wasn't an issue that would
help them get elected (46). While this has changed to a small
degree, the environment is still largely being ignored by the
oligarchy that is at the head of our country. The environment,
meanwhile, continues to get worse.
In Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut shows how we continue to pay
for wars environmentally even decades after they have ended (39),
yet the environmental cost of a war is seldom, if ever, taken into
consideration when world leaders decide to exercise their egos. An
excellent example of this was the pointless chaos known as the
Persian Gulf Crisis.
The ways and reasons of environmental destruction are
numerous. The effect of that most worshipped of all entities, the
automobile, is that, eventually, everything will be wiped out,
despite anything anyone can do (BC 29, 30). So the environment
will continue to get steadily worse, until we become a planet that
eats petroleum and coal (BC 59-61). Why will our planet continue
to get worse? Because we sacrifice the planet for worthless goods
like soda and work day products (BC 84), and on products that are
used just to demonstrate how rich and clever we are (J 99). The
environment will not only continue to get worse because of our
greedy, lustful ways (S 28), but also because most people are
utterly apathetic to global destruction, even when it's happening
all around them (BC 125). The bottom line is that when the land is
destroyed, the people are destroyed right along with it (BC 126).
We continue to pollute without conscience, yielding absurd
results (J 169), and yet, we don't learn from our mistakes; we'll
keep abusing the planet until it can no longer support us
(S 225-6).
Facades
Facades are public relations at all levels, and much of the
material success of people, others' perceptions of people, and the
wants of people, are based, not on knowledge, wisdom, hard work,
honesty, or understanding, but on facades. This is a recurring
theme in Slaughterhouse-Five (50, 58, 94, 188, 190).
Why are facades so successful and prevalent? Simply because
people enjoy them so much (SF 103). When we allow images and
illusions to color the way we perceive a person, it makes it so
much easier to decide if we like the person or not (SF 168, 185).
We no longer have to think; the person presenting the facade makes
the decision for us that we should like and/or respect him or her.
The only real mention of facades in Breakfast of Champions
occurs in relation to the business world and Kilgore Trout. Trout
is making his living at the time as an installer of aluminum
combination storm windows and screens. Trout has nothing to do
with the sales end of the business because he has no charm. Charm,
which is another name for public relations, is a scheme for
getting strangers to immediately like and trust a person (BC 20).
In other words, a way to allow people to not have to think; the
person merely takes the salesperson's advice and purchases
whatever the salesperson wants them to. The fact is, people want
to be lied to because it exonerates them of all blame (S 141).
They know that should anything eventually go wrong, such as
finding out they spent too much money on the product or bought
a bad product, they can always thrust the blame back on the
salesperson. The same applies to politicians and doctors. We just
love our facades.
The other two types of facades mentioned in Slapstick deal
with beauty and substance. As for beauty, Eliza decides that it's
overrated when she says the story of the ugly duckling would have
been much better if the duckling had turned into a rhinoceros
instead of a swan (58). The young Wilbur and Eliza, living in
their own world, couldn't conceive of beauty being important. But
in our society, a person can be utterly without talent and
intelligence, yet, if she or he is beautiful, they will be looked
upon as a star, lavished with money and attention, and looked to
for their opinion. Why is this, when beauty is so silly and
trivial (J 142-3)?
The other type of facade involves the public relations of
coming across as an expert (S 90). There are too many people on
this planet who may have the education and knowledge in a certain
field to be considered an expert in their area, and are considered
an expert by most people, but they are malicious lunatics in
actuality. This may be due to personal shortcomings, jealousy, or
greed, making them horrible people; yet, they are treated with
reverence and respect by nearly everybody, simply because of the
facade they have established and maintained.
Public relations, in its many forms, convinces us of what we
want to hear (J 113). Whether it's a public relations firm hired
by Kuwait to make a child lie to the U.S. public to gain military
support, or a fashion model's manager telling us that the model
cares deeply for AIDS victims, it all comes down to the same
thing: They're doing our thinking for us. We don't have to think
about if starting a war is right when a public relations firm gets
a little girl to go on national TV and lie to us that Iraqi
soldiers are throwing newborns out of their incubators and onto
the floor to their death. This firm has just told us a war with
Iraq is just, so it must be. Joe Average just had his mind made up
for him and doesn't have to think about the situation any more. We
don't have to think about whether we like the model or not because
it's obvious we should because she's intelligent (she knows about
the horror of AIDS) and compassionate (she cares about AIDS
victims). Her manager has decided for us that we like her.
Vonnegut is aware of the power of public relations, due to his
work with General Electric, and the prevalence of it. He shows it
to us in the bold strokes he paints for us of the decrepit bag
lady that is Mary Kathleen O'Looney, who looks and smells
disgusting, yet has the soul of a fiery renegade (J 195), and in
the soft nuances of Walter F. Starbuck, whose tailored suit
renders him a counterfeit of a perfect gentleman (J 264).
Women, Prejudice, and Metaphysics
One of the more interesting subjects that Vonnegut writes
about in these novels is women. He treats them as the intricate
beings they are.
In Slaughterhouse-Five he confines his comments about them to
the statement that associating sex and glamor with war is
"a simple-minded thing for a female Earthling to do" (121). This
is not a blanket condemnation of women, as many people may
perceive it; rather, it is a condemnation of our entire society,
that we should have evolved to the point that we associate
violence with sex. This statement is as much a condemnation of men
as women.
Being as Breakfast of Champions came out just after
Vonnegut's separation from his first wife, it should come as no
surprise that he should treat women with some wrath in this book.
He also treats them with empathy. His first foray into the world
of women in Breakfast of Champions is neither harsh nor
complimentary; it's a mere statement of fact. Vonnegut points out
that many women are intelligent enough to be stupid as a survival
technique (136). He follows this up with showing how women
oftentimes marry for money rather than love (143). Could it be
because they won't have to think as much? However, through the
Kentucky Fried Chicken incident, Vonnegut shows how some women are
selfless and only want what's best for their man (156-160).
Where does this bring us to? To Vonnegut's assertion that
women are "more spiritual, more sacred than women" (J 53). Yet,
women don't want love, they want power and money (J 132). Vonnegut
knows that all living creatures are many-faceted. Especially
women.
Prejudice is another topic Vonnegut deals with, mainly in
Breakfast of Champions. He notes that the sea pirates who arrived
on this continent were prejudiced. The people who were already on
this continent, and were slaughtered by the white sea pirates,
were copper-colored. The slaves the sea pirates brought to this
continent were black. "Color was everything" (11). While this
seems barbaric, racism is still an ugly part of our society (72).
Vonnegut conjectures that one of the reasons for the continued
racism in our country has to do with the Civil War. The white
people in the North, who won the war, were frustrated because they
lost so many lives, yet received no spoils from the war. Their
descendants inherited that frustration, without ever knowing what
it was (246). This is a very viable explanation for the
continuation of racism, for it seems that this frustration has
snuck into the collective unconscious of white people and refuses
to get out.
Another form of prejudice that is prevalent in our society is
that prejudice that is leveled against the artisitic and the
intelligent. Vonnegut shows the prejudice towards the artistic
through the characters of Harry and Grace LeSabre in Breakfast of
Champions. It appears they may be the only sexually creative
people in all of Midland City. They keep their sexual artistry to
themselves, though, because they know that no one else would
understand them. Their frustration at having to keep their art
secret finally leads them to leave Midland City and move to Maui
(164).
It is through a Kilgore Trout story that the ostracizing of
the intelligent is shown. In this story, a female rabbit has the
intelligence of Albert Einstein. The sad thing is, she leads
a fairly normal female rabbit's life, and comes to view her
intelligence as a useless tumor (BC 232). She is never able to use
the greatest blessing of her life, for if she used it, it would
have set her outside the scope of the world she was in - an
unapproachable mutant to the other rabbits.
Vonnegut also uses the case of Sacco and Vanzetti to
illuminate two other forms of prejudice, and those are the
prejudices leveled against foreigners and common sense. The common
sense of Sacco and Vanzetti came from the same books that were
studied by Harvard men, but somehow the Harvard men never learned
from them. Sacco and Vanzetti's common sense was that governments
are the enemies of the people, and that many of the people who
make up our government are unjust, self-deceiving, ignorant, and
greedy. Such common sense is grounds enough for being ostracized,
even murdered, but add into the equation that the holders of this
common sense were foreign born, and it comes as no shock that
these two men were sacrificed (J 216).
One final topic that Vonnegut briefly touches on is the
metaphysical. He mentions it in Breakfast of Champions in regards
to the death of Mary Young. Upon her death she sent out small
telepathic butterflies to everyone she had known, of which was
Dwayne Hoover, who hears her last words. He doesn't know where the
voice came from (63-4). Then twice in Slapstick Vonnegut makes
a reference to people communicating by telepathic means (94,
100). What does it mean? It means that Vonnegut realizes that
there is much out there that we don't understand and must keep our
eyes open to.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
(the main page, abstract, evaluation form...)
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 - AUTOBIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 2 - PHILOSOPHY AND OPINIONS
CHAPTER 3 - STYLE
WORKS CITED
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