American Literature

It was Kurt Vonneguts satirical and pessimistic novels that gained him considerable attention during the late sixties and seventies. Throughout the twentieth century he has been considered one of the top American authors of his generation. Focusing on the potential of mans evilness Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse Five and Player Piano depict how destructive and corrupt society can become regarding the topics of money, war, and personal integrity. The succeeding discussion shall expound on this thesis and explore on Vonneguts renowned literary style and perspectives.

Vonnegut on Evilness
Evil has always been a recurring and a typical thematic focus in literature. It appears like man understands the logic of having some sense of balance between portrayals of morality and evil. Aside from the presenting the more sordid and grim realities of life, the ideal of evil in literature also seem to rouse peoples vigilance on some of the most intriguing and stirring issues in the society nowadays. The author, Kurt Vonnegut, has been recognized as one of the most talented authors in his generation. He became well known for his infamous satires and gloomy depictions of life (Liukkonen and Pesonen). One of the most observable features in most of Vonneguts work is the presence of pessimism and evilness. In line with this observation, it is important to understand where the authors perception of evilness actually lies. In a published interview, Vonnegut was asked if he really believed that the human race was meant to be doomed. With cold conviction, the author notes that doom in mans nature (Vonnegut and Allen 255). From this response, it is perceivable that Vonneguts notion of evilness has a more political leaning. Furthermore, the introductory part of his work evidently supports this perception. Vonnegut writers,

There are no characters in this story and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters. But old Derby was a character now. (Vonnegut 208)
It appears obvious that his idea of evil actually roots to unacceptable political and military decisions that he think could have been corrected earlier on to save the world from the past damnations it went through. Also, in looking back to his life, it can also be seen that the authors pessimism in his works must have been brought by the pessimism his life has taught him. At the age of sixteen, Vonnegut himself has been through some of lifes most challenging feats. He grew up seeing his father as a tragic failure. He himself saw his own father fall as a failure in his job and aspirations as a father and man of the house. This became the greatest insult to him and his family, and this was also the first indicant of lifes doom on Vonneguts then young eyes. (Liukkonen and Pesonen n.p.) Hence, through these, it appears clear that indeed Vonnegut holds a considerable amount of exposure to pessimism and evil thought  from his political and military inclination  that eventually brought him to create satirical and equally pessimistic works. Two of the authors works that clearly depict evilness are Slaughterhouse Five and Player Piano. Aside from simply presenting the more negative realities of life, these works were nonetheless perceived to portray some of life most significant ideals.

Slaughterhouse Five
Slaughterhouse Five is one of Vonneguts works which has been perceived with the most explicit pessimism and cynicism to the worlds morality. From the introduction alone, it can be observed how the author perceives human morality. In the authors introduction to the story, he immediately expressed how he himself thought such work as a failure, as he thought that massacres were never logical and intelligent considering the extent of astuteness of the human mind (Vonnegut, qtd. in Book of the Times). The book was basically Vonneguts own account of the most psychologically traumatic event in his life, which was the Dresden fire bombing in America during the 2nd World War. In reading the book, readers are easily presented with the cold, hard recount of what it is like to be amidst an atrocious environment. And as an individual, who was held captive by the Germans during the World War, Vonneguts stories have been some of the most stirring and moving presentations of what a war is like first-hand. In this book, Vonnegut explicitly expressed how appalling and dreadful mass murder is, which countries during that time considered as an object of customary apathy (Schickel 16). Because of the clear and convincing representations of the painful and distressful realities of the atrocity of the Second World War, this work of Vonnegut has been considered as one of the greatest depictions of evil in war and the crooked reality of personal integrity in the military. In this work, the author himself praises the abysmal representation of characters immorality as he thought of such actions as very human. Apparently, the author believes the fact that no matter how much goodness lies inside an individuals heart he or she can never escape evil as mankind is doomed to commit the most inconceivable of mayhem (Morse 22). However, the Slaughterhouse Five was not the only work of Vonnegut which was seen to hold notable presentations of pessimism and cynicism. Aside from this work, a lot about the authors negative thoughts on the worlds morality can be observed in Player Piano.

Player Piano
If Vonneguts Slaughterhouse Five was set during the Second World War, the Player Piano on the other hand was deemed as an addition to the utopian works of fiction that presented a fictional picture of the future. In this work, the author presented his own imagination of world after the Second World War. In this book, the world was presented to face a highly technological society 10 years after the Second World War. Vonnegut pictured multinational corporations employing mere machines and computers to replace the human workers.  This book served as the authors expression of how he resented the thought of managers and engineers ruling the world. Vonnegut writes,

Strange business  This crusading spirit of the managers and engineers, the idea of designing and manufacturing and distributing being sort of a holy war all that folklore was cooked up by public relations and advertising men hired by managers and engineers to make big business popular in the old days, which it certainly wasnt in the beginning. Now, the engineers and managers believe with all their hearts the glorious things their forebears hired people to say about them. Yesterdays snow job becomes todays sermon. (Vonnegut 79)

This book pictured the United States to compete with rest of the world in a war which can be observed as a fight for a more powerful capitalism (Marvin 25). This story was basically the authors thoughts on how the world may be like when all of the worlds most powerful movers in the economy fight for nothing but power and wealth. As Vonneguts debut novel, this can be considered as a notable address to the worlds growing obsession to wealth. And due to his undeniable wit and fondness on cynicism, one of his critiques even noted that Vonnegut may not be considered a credible prophet in this case, but he is definitely, a sharp-eyed satirist (Hicks).

As per the above discussion on Vonneguts personal leaning on pessimism and satire, it appears clear that indeed there have been several factors and catalysts in his past that brought forth the now perceivable negativity in his attitude and perception of the worlds morality. By looking at how his works, the Slaughterhouse Five and the Player Piano delved on this ideal, it is clear that aside from being a mere depiction of how cruel and miserable the doom of the world may actually look like, Vonneguts works also present significant messages that relate to the reality of how corrupt and vicious the society may become if mankind will continue its unpardonable atrocity which roots from money, war and personal integrity.