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Alyssa Smith

Ms. Dearing

English 106

16 February 2015

Eternal Dilemma

Although dystopian novels are common and many people feel do not relate to the world

we live in, most dystopian stories contain themes that our society struggles with. My analysis of

“2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut will demonstrate that even though it may be a work of fiction, the

underlying theme of population control by government regulations is something that we can

relate to in our own society. Because of these reasons I would recommend this story to anyone in

high school or older with an hour to spare.

Vonnegut begins his gruesome tale by taking readers to the waiting room of the delivery

ward at a hospital. We are introduced to Mr. Wehling, who is waiting for his wife to deliver

triplets. On a day where any first time father should be bursting with joy, Mr. Wehling is morose,

dreading his situation. We as readers do not fully understand why until a little further in the

story. Vonnegut also introduces a man of about 200 years old who is painting a mural in honor of

the hospital staff and the Bureau of Termination which we quickly learn more about. In

Vonnegut’s futuristic society, the world has found a cure for aging. No one dies of disease or old

age, they are eternally young. This sounds like a wonderful world to live in, but if no one is

dying then they must enforce strict population control so the world does not become

overpopulated. In order to accomplish this, every time a new soul is to be born, someone must

sacrifice their own life by volunteering to die in order to make way for a new generation. This

brings us back to poor Mr. Wehling who is about to have triplets. In order for all of his children

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to live he must find three volunteers, otherwise his children’s lives will be terminated. He has

found only one volunteer so far, his grandfather; so he is faced with the impossible problem of

deciding which of his children get to live. Vonnegut then introduces Dr. Hintz and a woman

working for the Bureau of Termination, Ms. Duncan. They do not appear to be alarmed or

worried about their lives because they are necessary to their world and do not have to consider

committing suicide themselves. Readers see the building tension between the doctor and Ms.

Duncan unfold until Mr. Wehling takes matters into his own hands, shocking readers and giving

the novel an extremely unexpected and twisted ending.

In “2BR02B”, Vonnegut stresses the negative effects of population control on the general

public. “The law said that no newborn child could survive unless the parents of the child could

find someone who would volunteer to die,” (Vonnegut 11). Since everyone in this society has the

ability to live forever, it is extremely hard to find volunteers to sacrifice themselves in order for

someone to have children. In this particular instance, Mr. Wehling can only find one volunteer

for his three newborn babies, his grandfather. So not only would he lose someone dear to him, he

would not even be able to save all of his children and then must choose which innocent infant

must be sacrificed as well. Although the society had seemingly good intentions by regulating

population, they were causing deeper, more controversial issues with those affected by it.

As mentioned earlier, these negative affects displayed in “2BR02B” only affect the

general public, not the people higher up in society, like Ms. Duncan and Dr. Hintz. They justify

themselves and their actions by stating, “Without population control, human beings would now

be packed on this surface of this old planet like drupelets on a blackberry!” (Vonnegut 12).

Doctors and Hostesses of the Bureau believe that since they discovered the cure for aging, if they

did not use population control people would continue to multiply until we used up all of the

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world’s resources and destroyed ourselves. It is easy for them to point these fingers because they

know they are not the ones who will have to sacrifice themselves because there is a sense of

urgency for them, unlike people in other professions like Mr. Wehling.

I believe that population control is something readers can easily relate to because it is

something we as a society struggle with. An example in our society was the issue in China where

the government mandated how many children each family was allowed to have due to

overpopulation. Because of this many families valued the lives of sons over the lives of

daughters because only sons could carry on the family name. Multiple problems stemmed from

this including newborn babies being thrown away in trash cans or in the streets, especially infant

girls. Also since families were mainly keeping sons, the male to female ratio was thrown

extremely off balance and made it harder for those sons to carry on the family name and

reproduce because there are not enough females.

Although we do not have the cure for aging as shown in “2BR02B”, Vonnegut raises

issues that readers can relate to. Population control and government regulations are something

our society has in common with Vonnegut’s dystopia, although it is not as extreme. Since we can

expand our thoughts on these themes and get a different perspective, I believe that all young

adults/adults should read Vonnegut’s extremely interesting, although ghastly, dystopian short

story.

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Works Cited

Vonnegut, Kurt. 2BR02B. Auckland: Floating, 1962. Print.