Trimm

Michael Trimm

J. Omlor

English 2 Honors

April 23, 2009

Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Stories

In many ways the nightmarish science fiction introduced in Vonnegut’s short

stories are close to becoming a reality in today’s society. With the population expanding,

scientists making new advancements daily, and government meddling in private affairs,

Vonnegut’s warnings from forty years ago are proving to be relevant today. Vonnegut

might be more prophetic than he realized.

“Welcome to the Monkey House” discusses the topic of overpopulation, the

problems associated with it and those entailed in eradicating it. The sexual energy that

runs through the story serves as the vital counterpoint to the declining sterility of a

society that suppresses sexual pleasure and encourages euthanasia. This world of

seventeen billion people and Ethical Suicide Parlors with six-feet tall, sexily clad

hostesses appears reminiscent of that in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” The

first difference is that in this story the world government has imposed compulsory ethical

birth control, rendered through pills that numb the lower extremities.

Most women said their bottom halves felt like wet cotton or stale ginger ale. The

pills were so effective that you could blindfold a man who had taken one, tell him

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to recite the Gettysburg Address, kick him in the balls while he was doing it, and

he wouldn’t miss a syllable.

The pills do not prevent reproduction; they simply remove any sexual pleasure. “Thus did

science and morals go hand in hand.”

The second difference from the world of “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and

Tomorrow” is the emergence of an inevitable human resistance to the dehumanizing

structures of the world government. The voice of irrepressible human vitality in this story

emanates from Billy the Poet, a “nothinghead,” as those who refuse to take their pills are

called. Billy is known to assume various disguises and abduct Suicide Parlor hostesses,

deflowering them and introducing them into an underground culture of nothingheads.

The plot has the sheriff come to an Ethical Suicide Parlor to warn the two

hostesses, Nancy McLuhan and Mary Kraft, that Billy the Poet is on the loose. Past

behavior suggests he will head for the suicide parlor, since his targets have always been

the hostesses. The telephone rings and a voice delivers one of the brief, taunting poems

that are Billy’s trademark. But the police are prepared and capture the caller. The sheriff

races off to the scene of the arrest, with Mary following. Nancy returns to the old man

they have been about to terminate, but he pulls out a gun, strips off his disguise and

reveals himself as Billy the Poet. He smuggles Nancy out and leads her through sewer

tunnels to the Kennedy Compound Museum, which closes for the winter. There, other

nothingheads seize her and drug her. By the time she awakes, the effects of her ethical

birth control pills have worn off, and she finds herself in the cabin of Joseph Kennedy’s

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yacht “Marlin” with Billy. She tells him that if he wants to take her he had better call his

friends to hold her down, and that is what happens. Later, she looks out from under her

covers to see Billy quietly reading at the cabin table. When he confirms that he has done

the same to the other hostesses, she asks why they have never killed or betrayed him. He

explains that they are grateful and that, in time, she will be, too. “ ‘What you have been

through, Nancy,’ he said, ‘is a typical wedding night for a strait-laced girl of a hundred

years ago, when everybody was a nothinghead’ ”. He explains that marriages often began

that way, but that with time the bride could become “a sexual enthusiast.” His intent is to

bring an innocent pleasure back into the world and to express his tenderness he leaves her

a book of poetry open to the poem his grandfather had read his bride on their wedding

night: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. He also

leaves her with a bottle that contains the old birth control pills that allowed pleasure but

prevented conception. And on the label are the words, “WELCOME TO THE MONKEY

HOUSE” .

The inscription refers to the history of how the whole idea of the numbing pills

began. A druggist named J. Edgar Nation had been taking his eleven children for a walk

through the zoo and came upon a monkey playing with its genitals. He invented the pill

to “introduce morality into the monkey house at the Grand Rapids zoo.” Since the anti-

aging pill that kept everyone looking like twenty-two was boosting the population

growth, Nation’s ethical birth control pill was imposed on humans, too. The druggist’s

name is a two-part derivation from J. Edgar Hoover and Carrie Nation. Hoover, as the

FBI Director of the time, was vigorous in his rigid moral judgments, despite some

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peculiar proclivities of his own, while Carrie Nation sought to purge the society of

alcohol-induced sin. Carrie’s influence lives on in Nancy’s teachers, for she believes that

unrestrained promiscuity can be induced by just one glass of the worst drug of all – gin.

One of Vonnegut’s targets is “the people who have been most eager to rule, to

make the laws, to enforce the laws and to tell everybody exactly how God Almighty

wants things here on Earth –those people have forgiven themselves and their friends for

anything and everything. But they have been absolutely disgusted and terrified by the

natural sexuality of common men and women.”

The government of this story has made the enjoyment of sex morally wrong,

rather than seeing the problem of excessive reproduction. This story was originally

published in Playboy and, given the presumed audience, Vonnegut’s implied position is

that government actions that censor and make Playboy inaccessible are hypocritical,

insipid, and futile. “Vonnegut has consistently decried censorship and the self-

righteousness that imposes controls on the individual human rights of others as surely as

if they were hanging the weights on Harrison Bergeron.” (Reed, 101) Vonnegut is very

serious about the threat of overpopulation. In this story, most people do not have jobs,

most animals and plants have disappeared, and every aspect of a boring world is

government controlled. Vonnegut warns against the tendency of those in power to

misuse the need to respond to real problems by imposing solutions that have ulterior

motives.

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Vonnegut also infuses some hidden humor into the piece. Upon close

examination, the piece truly is humorous. First, in Nation’s name and in his being

offended by the monkey. The Suicide Parlor hostesses and their stereotypical description

are subtly humorous, along with the fact that people who use the pill urinate blue urine.

A few other notable humorous parts of the story are Billy’s poems, the last suppers in the

Howard Johnsons that always adjoin the parlors and the observation that, amongst all its

changes, America had not adopted the metric system.

A big question this story poses is brought about in the discussion between Nancy

and Billy. When Billy asks Nancy how it feels to be a virgin at the age of sixty-three, her

answer is “pointless.” The fact of Billy’s rape of Mary is difficult to dismiss. He asserts

that his action is no different than the deflowering of a newlywed bride. Does Billy have

the right to perform his acts any more than the government has the right to numb the

people?

“Harrison Bergeron” is dystopian in its portrayal of a society based on an

idealistic vision turned nightmare. The story is set in the year 2081 and “everybody was

finally equal.” It is impossible for anyone to be superior to their fellow person, as

guaranteed by the “211th, 212th and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the

unceasing vigilance of the agents of the United States Handicapper General.” The story

features Vonnegut being extremely funny while touching on serious social issues.

There’s a sense of visual humor, with Harrison looking like “a walking junkyard”,

wearing “a red rubber ball with a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even

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white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random.” The implausibility and

exaggeration of the handicaps, Harrison’s size, and the sizeable leaps all contribute to a

visual humor and reassert the fictiveness of the story. Vonnegut asserts that a society

such as the one presented in the story is too farfetched to occur in reality by making the

story exaggerated and dramatically fictitious.

The non-humorous topic presented in the story, however, is equality. Politicians

and philosophers have pondered the achievement of a truly equal society for centuries,

but in 1961, the social context made the issue particularly relevant. First, this was the era

of the Cold War, where Soviet Communistic claims of egalitarianism were pitted against

the Western ideals of capitalism and individualism. Also, it was just before the “Age of

Aquarius,” in which competition and superiority were looked down upon. In his other

stories, Vonnegut has spoken out against seeking to gain material wealth, status, asserting

superiority and other qualities of competition. The same stories also admire those who

strive and take pride in something, or are creative. This story clearly satirizes an

obsession with equalizing. The ludicrous handicaps and the reduction of the population

to the “weakest link” provide the greatest evidence of satire. The consequences of the

oversight required to maintain an equal society are used to create fear. With this still

exists a glimpse of what makes the notion of equality appealing. Hazel’s reminiscing of

the days when she was made to feel like “something the cat dragged in” may not be very

persuasive, but George’s thoughts on cheating for personal gain and Harrison’s vow to

create a new monarchy are enough to allude to the issues associated with inequality.

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Vonnegut seems cynical about what is defined as average in America. “Hazel had

a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in

short bursts.” The underlying humor continues in the observation of the ballerinas, stating

that they were not very good, and no better than anyone else would have been. Her

commendation of the stuttering announcer’s attempt to do his best reveals Hazel’s

tendency to miss the point, which is also shown when she suggests George remove some

of his weights in the evening. The irony of the situation contributes to the message of the

story.

“EPICAC” is another one of Vonnegut’s borderline science fiction stories.

EPICAC is a complex computer system that cost $776, 434, 927.54 and occupies “about

an acre” of the fourth floor of the physics building at Wyandotte College. EPICAC is

used by the military and is designed to “plot the course of a rocket from anywhere on

earth to the second button from the bottom of Joe Stalin’s overcoat, if necessary.” For all

its cost and great size, EPICAC fails to fulfill its duties, faltering and seeming unhappy in

its work. Until, one day, the operator tells EPICAC of his love for Pat, a female

colleague. EPICAC then pours out romantic poetry that the narrator signs his name to

and uses to woo Pat and gain her hand in marriage. However, EPICAC falls in love with

Pat, and realizing that he cannot win Pat, commits suicide.

Vonnegut again shows technological/futuristic foresight and a situation like this

may occur between humans and artificial intelligence, but this is yet another plot that is

farfetched. Vonnegut gives us an interesting “what if” and welcomes us to temporarily

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suspend our disbelief and believe that the mathematically savvy engineer and the

supercomputer can only resort to a communication method of “a childish numbers-for-

letters code: 1 for A…”

This story depends on the effectiveness of the narrator persona. Vonnegut

ensures that the narrator is characterized from the first sentence: “Hell, it’s about time

somebody told about my friend EPICAC.” He is careless and informal, and he gives us a

different level of acceptance to the truthfulness of the story than if we were being told

from an objective standpoint. It also gives EPICAC a gender, personality and a

relationship from the get-go. The emotions in the story are the narrator’s and the reader

is not asked to be the primary receptor of them, as would be the case if we didn’t have

him. Vonnegut’s stories often show a bit of sentiment that makes some readers hesitate.

However, the sentiment is often undercut by the humor and something offhand in the

narration, which is true for this story. EPICAC’s falling in love and being told it cannot

love or be loved because it is a machine and is inferior because it isn’t protoplasm is sad,

but absurd.

Historical Perspectives

The culture and historical events in the United States during Vonnegut’s writing

career (1950-2005) had a significant impact on the country as a whole, and helped to

influence Vonnegut’s writing. Throughout this time period, America saw the civil rights

movement, the cold war and communism scare, television and the development of

modern American culture, and World War II. Each of these events or movements was

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highly significant in the development of the country and much of it can be reflected in

Vonnegut’s writing. A common theme in many of his pieces is that the government is

destructive to the individual and many of his characters do evil in the name of the good.

“Harrison Bergeron” is the best example of this. In the late 1940s, the movement toward

full civil rights for African Americans began to occur. In 1961, the year that “Harrison

Bergeron” was published, the “Freedom Rides” began. The year prior, the US Congress

passed a civil rights act that gave African Americans the unrestricted right to vote. While

racial equality and civil rights among races do not specifically relate to “Harrison

Bergeron,” it is relevant because it was one of the compelling public issues of the time.

Vonnegut’s use of the issue of equality in the story is independent of race on the surface,

but clearly is designed to invoke the fears of the many, mostly white, citizens who feared

that the government would propose some sort of scheme to enforce equality of outcome.

Many felt that the desegregation of the public school system and other facilities would

result in a tyranny similar to that in the story.

The Cold War and the Communism scare were also a very significant part of

American culture during Vonnegut’s writing career. The type of government authority in

“Harrison Bergeron” simultaneously mimics and satirizes the way Americans viewed

socialism and communism, and more specifically, the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Schools developed courses to wage a propaganda war in the home. A fear of nuclear war

led to the construction of thousands of homemade bomb shelters. Nikita Khrushchev’s

promise to bury the United States in the late 50s created a significant fear of an

authoritarian government taking over the “free world.” Communism would mean a

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tyrannical rule without due process and a secret form of law enforcement. The

government in the story is quite similar to the communistic form of government. Even

worse than the Soviet’s threats was Fidel Castro’s successful rebellion in Cuba. In the

middle of 1960 it was evident that Castro was building a socialist state. The threat of

Communism being only ninety miles from the United States induced panic in many

citizens. “Vonnegut recognized that the way communism was practiced led to the failure

of its basic promise of providing a workers’ paradise of equality in a classless society.”

In his essay, “Expected Meanings in Vonnegut’s Dead-End Fiction,” Robert Uphaus

identifies the basis of the catastrophe known as the United States government in 2081:

television. “The history of mankind, Vonnegut implies in the story, is a history of

progressive desensitization partly spurred on by the advent of television.” “Harrison

Bergeron” uses television as a “time filler”, a tool to hinder people from thinking. This is

illustrated through Hazel Bergeron’s inability to remember the sad thing she saw on

television which cause her to be sad, which was the murder of her son. Vonnegut

primarily aims his satire at an overbearing, authoritarian/totalitarian government, but

television doe receive a large attack for its role in the erosion of thought. He suggests

that for normal people, television serves the same purpose as a mental handicap for those

with above average intelligence.

Finally, Vonnegut’s skepticism of a powerful government and scientific

“solutions” to problems stems from his World War II experiences. He was a prisoner of

war and survived the Allied bombing raids on Dresden Germany in 1945. Over 135,000

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people (mostly civilians) died from the attack. Vonnegut has used this story in many of

his stories. His realization that the government can and does lie to its citizens, whether it

be for good or bad, is the foundation for distrust of a powerful government in “Harrison

Bergeron.”

Modern Relations

“Welcome to the Monkey House”, “Harrison Bergeron”, and “EPICAC” all have

relation to our modern culture. “Welcome to the Monkey House” deals with the risk of

overpopulation and the effects of the government trying to curtail it. Our world right now

is focused, among other things, on sustainability, becoming “eco-friendly”, and reducing

our “carbon footprint” and one of the tactics used to scare us is tales of a rapidly

increasing population and the inability to support it. While “population explosion” is

exaggerating the situation a bit too much, the reality is that our worldwide population is

rapidly increasing. The warning to take from Vonnegut’s story is that we need to be

wary of government utilization of scientific “solutions” to the population problem.

“EPICAC” is a good example of the artificial intelligence we are constantly trying

to create and/or improve upon. While no harm came to humans or society because of

EPICAC’s tale, Vonnegut’s story can serve as a warning to what artificial intelligence

can become. If a machine becomes similar enough to a human being to have feelings and

cause a human to believe its feelings are real, then we dive into the question of what

makes us human.

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Finally, “Harrison Bergeron” warns us of government involvement in the creation

of an equal society. Today, we are in the middle of a civil rights movement, with groups

fighting over equality, not of race, but of sexual orientation. The lesbian, gay, bisexual,

and transgender community has replaced the African Americans in the struggle for equal

protection and civil rights. While “Harrison Bergeron” warns of an equality of intellect

and ability, it is the radicals in any pro-equality group that can take something seemingly

innocent and blow it to extreme proportions. Vonnegut warns us of what can happen

when we try too hard to become equal and allow the government to take control of our

equality. The goal should be equal opportunity and equal access to the law. Allowing

computers to become more human and the cloning of humans, which is becoming

increasingly possible, is the equality that we want to avoid.

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Works Cited

Adam Marton. "'Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You....' by Adam R Marton." 'Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You....' by Adam R Marton. 20 Apr. 2009 <http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kv_ask_not.html>.

Critical essays on Kurt Vonnegut. Boston, Mass: G.K. Hall, 1990.

Esch, Stacy Tartar. "WCU - Spring 2005 Notes on 'EPICAC' by Kurt Vonnegut." Brainstorm Communication Services. 20 Apr. 2009 <http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2004/epicac.html>.

"Harrison Bergeron (Historical Context): Information from Answers.com." Answers.com - Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and much more. Answers.com. 20 Apr. 2009 <http://www.answers.com/topic/harrison-bergeron-story-6>.

Hattenhauer, Darryl. "The politics of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron"" The politics of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" 20 Apr. 2009 <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2455/is_4_35/ai_91040892/>.

Kurt., Vonnegut,. Welcome to the Monkey House. New York: The Dial P, 1998.

"Kurt Vonnegut." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 20 Apr. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut>.

Lundquist, James. Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Ungar, 1977.

Mustazza, Leonard, ed. Critical response to Kurt Vonnegut. Westport, Conn: Greenwood P, 1994.

Reed, Peter J. Short fiction of Kurt Vonnegut. Westport, Conn: Greenwood P, 1997.

Vit, Marek. "Uniformity and Deformity in "Harrison Bergeron"" Uniformity and Deformity in "Harrison Bergeron" 20 Apr. 2009 <http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/bergeron.html>.

"Welcome To The Monkey House Links!" North Carolina @ibiblio. 20 Apr. 2009 <http://www.ibiblio.org/brian/vonnegut/links.html>.

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