Vonnegut‘s way of narration with a clear language is a result of his journalistic experience and also from his pragmatic upbringing. As a journalist, Vonnegut knew that he had to write for certain audience which he had to keep in mind at all times when writing. The pragmatic environment that he grew up in taught Kurt that it is important to be efficient when choosing to do anything. The result of these factors is Vonnegut‘s express and ever present concern that his ideas are perceived and understood by the reader, who, in turn, will hopefully learn something that will help him make the world immediately around him just a little bit better.
Vonnegut’s mastery of diction allowed him to craftily developed characters in a manner that made them and the story they were a part of, seem real. As a narrator of Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut writes articulately,
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Even though Vonnegut isn’t very emotional writer, he simply brings his ideas to the mind of the reader and lets the reader decide how to feel. The tone and diction combined can sometimes make us feel a little sad while reading Slaughterhouse-Five this just because it gives us the impression that nothing really matters and life just ends up being terrible.
Kurt Vonnegut gave us some of the most timeless advice on the art and craft of writing in an essay “How to Write with Style,” published 1985 in the wonderful anthology How to Use the Power of the Printed Word where he describes the most important elements of writing styles:
As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. ‘To be or not to be?’ asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a