The Styles of Curt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut uses dark humor and satire to convey his feelings and beliefs on the world around him, without being completely obvious. �“If you could just take a few out when you came home from work,” said Hazel. “I mean- you don’t compare with anybody around here. You just set around,”

“If I tried to get away with it,’ said George, �then other people’d get away with it – and pretty soon wed be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn’t like that would you?”

“Id hate it,” Said Hazel.

“There you are,” said George. “The minute people start cheating on laws what do you think happens to society?” (9)’

That small section from Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, is a great example of Vonnegut speaking out, in a satirical way about how people strive for perfection, and utopia, and Vonnegut brings forth a more realistic Utopia where everyone is “equal”. But this so called Utopia makes the readers realize, a Utopia is impossible without people controlling it, therefore making those in charge, unequal to those living in the Utopia. Vonnegut. What occurs in this short story, is a dystopia.

“This absurd dystopia's version of equality sounds like something from the pages of popular magazines during the Cold War—because it is. Vonnegut depended on those magazines to establish himself as a writer. (“Harrison Bergeron” first appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.) Just as Twain could not have sold Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Wilson if their sympathy with African-American characters had been obvious, so Vonnegut could not have sold a story overtly sympathetic to leveling. Instead, the Handicapper General apparently recalls the likes of John Wilkes Booth, proponent of slavery. As a struggling writer, Vonnegut had to put a surface on this story that would appeal to his audience. And it did.” (Hattenhauer)

This commentary is great in realizing what affected Vonnegut and what exactly was causing him to write certain things. Vonnegut’s writing was greatly affected by wars, and the era he was living in, and where he was living. The Nazi’s and their ideals were deeply criticized by Vonnegut in “Harrison Bergeron”.

“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. Nobody was any smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. (7)” This is the opening to the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, and it is extremely powerful. The Nazi’s wanted their idea of perfection and to the rest of the world, slaughtering millions of people was not their