Kurt

Vonnegut was born in 1922. After studying at Cornell University from 1940-1942. During college Vonnegut enlisted in the U.S. Army and later he was sent to Europe and served in the famous Battle of the Bulge in which the Allies finally broke through Hitler's troops and invaded Germany. After the battle Kurt was captured and held as a prisoner of war in a German concentration camp. During this time, Vonnegut witnessed the physical demise of Germany. While Kurt witnessed the murder of 130,000 people in the concentration camp, he survived by hiding in the basement. I imagine that during Kurt's time in war he saw the mass destruction of human life which, as a result, placed a value human life for Kurt . Kurt's war experience and ideas were expressed in his novel SlaughterHouse Five which describes the journey of a disoriented and ill-trained soldier who dislikes war. In addition to the meaning of life Kurt found in the mist of the war, Kurt's again witnessed how easily life could be taken away when his mother committed suicide. (3)  Lev Grossman of Time Magazine believes that Vonnegut was constantly dissapointed with humanity and himself. (4) I agree with Grossman because Vonnegut's experience in war and experience with depression and death would lead him to devalue human life and therefor search desperately to find a meaning behind life and the purpose of man (exactly what he attempts to tell the world in The Sirens of Titan).

" I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours."- Kurt Vonnegut

 Upon returning from the war, he married his high school girlfriend, had kids, and held multiple jobs before landing on writing. All of Kurt's writing includes some kind of war element because of his first hand experiences in WWII. Throughout his life, Kurt struggled with depression and even tried to take his own life in 1984. (1) Kurt's attempted suicide might be the result of a feeling of emptiness and purposeless. This feeling is reflected in many of his main characters. Kurt's writing is known to combine sarcastic commentary on society with surrealism and science fiction. In many of his works, the main character experiences some type of dehumanization from different forces of society such as technology and capitalism. His common themes are : pacifism, social equality, and common decency. (2)

Refer to Bibliography:

"Kurt Vonnegut Biography" (1)

"Kurt Vonnegut" (2)

What Am I Doing?

Warning. This is not your traditional blog. This is an English project. If you are not my english teacher or interested in Kurt Vonnegut and The Sirens of Titan then you can leave this blog.

I had the opportunity to choose a great American writer and discover what he or she has given to the American literary cannon. I could have chosen any writer but I ended up choosing Kurt Vonnegut because of his particular genre and because of the feedback I have heard about his books. I know Vonnegut is known for his focus on science fiction and war in his novels. I am not that big of a fan of war so I choose a novel that focuses on a futuristic scene. The novel I chose was The Sirens of Titan. Based on the summary I read about it and a small amount of information from Wikipedia, I understood that the novel takes place in the future and focuses on the purpose of human life. I plan to read the novel for enjoyment but at the same time examine the postmodern aspects of the novel itself. The main themes I am going to be looking at are the role of space, religion, and humans in the novel. This book is filled with random events that take places on multiple planets. I cannot wait to figure out what this book is about.

 I will begin by learning a little bit about Vonnegut himself and his background. I believe that a major part of the writer's work is the history of the writer him or herself. After examining Kurt's biography, I will explain a summary of the novel so that you as a reader can be familiar with the novel itself. Subsequently, I will explore the main themes and look at how those themes are postmodern. Throughout all of this, I will be reading reviews on the novel and taking into account the different points of view others have had. Most of all, I'm going to have fun.