ipl-logo

Kurt Vonnegut's I Am The Doorway

1480 Words6 Pages

Many authors have written science-fiction stories to warn people about future, including Kurt Vonnegut and Stephen King. Vonnegut has written several science fiction stories using dark humor and irony, for example, the short story, 2BR02B. In this short story, Vonnegut describes a society where there is no death and the population of the United States is stabilized at forty million souls by killing someone for each person born. Mr. Wehling, a soon to be a father of three, discovers the flaws in society as a result of the birth of his children, Mr. Wehling has to find volunteers that will sacrifice themselves for his children. In I am the Doorway, Stephen King uses his style of suspense and horror to warn the audience. The story is about a …show more content…

This encounter brings eyeballs to break out on his fingertips, which can control Arthur, so he attempts to fight back against the aliens. Although both warn the audience, Vonnegut is most effective in using his writing style to warn the audience through the use of dark humor, irony, and allusion to dictatorships of the past. Vonnegut’s style most effectively warns the audience of a through his inclusion of irony in the exposition. In the exposition, Vonnegut begins with using sarcasm to describe the society, “Everything was perfectly swell. … Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers. The population of the United States was stabilized at forty-million souls” (Vonnegut, Page 1). Irony is present in the first few lines of the short story as Vonnegut describes the society as perfectly swell, even though people have to kill themselves in order to stabilize the population. Furthermore, Vonnegut suggests that couples who give birth must find volunteers which discourage people from having a child because most …show more content…

King uses horror and suspense in the short story, I am the Doorway, “beneath the bandages, my new eyes stared blindly into the darkness the bandages forced on them. They itched.” (King, Page 1). However, King uses his horror and suspense to entertain the reader instead of using his style to warn the reader. King warns the reader to entertain them because as shown by the quote, the horror element is used to have the audience to fear the monster, instead of the dystopian implications that Vonnegut warns about. Overall, Vonnegut is most effective in using his style to warn the audience as a result of his use of figurative language to reveal the dystopian elements of the society, unlike

Show More
Related

Regret In The Painted Door By Sinclair Ross

1598 Words | 7 Pages

Regret is an incurable disease caused by lies, distortion, and falsehood. People often try to find a cure for this disease or try to believe that regret is something that is easy to cure, however, it is not. Once an individual make themselves believe in a lie they tell themselves, the pain and suffering that comes with regret will continue to linger for a lifetime. Sinclair Ross’s short story, “The Painted Door” highlights the idea that individuals who deceive themselves in the chase for happiness often create a lifetime of regret.

Read More

Archetypes In Slaughterhouse Five

673 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut intertwines reality and fiction to provide the reader with an anti-war book in a more abstract form. To achieve this abstraction, Kurt Vonnegut utilizes descriptive images, character archetypes, and various themes within the novel. By doing so, he created a unique form of literature that causes the reader to separate reality from falsehood in both their world, and in the world within Vonnegut’s mind. Vonnegut focuses a lot on the characters and their actions in “Slaughterhouse Five.”

Read More

Kurt Vonnegut's Essay 'You Have Insulted Me'

336 Words | 2 Pages

You Have Insulted Me essay by Evan Hang Kurt Vonnegut’s purpose for writing the letter, “You Have Insulted Me” is to convince the school board to change their decision through the use of rhetorical strategies, logos, pathos, and ethos. To begin, Vonnegut uses ethos to convince the school board. Vonnegut uses examples of ethos such as that he served in World War 2 and earned a purple heart to change the school board’s decision. “Every year I receive at least a dozen invitations to be the commencement speaker at colleges and high schools.” Vonnegut uses real-life, reliable information to show the school board that he is trusted by many people.

Read More

Ray Bradbury's The Pedestrian, A Sound Of Thunder, And

1156 Words | 5 Pages

Asleep “I don’t try to predict the future; I try to prevent it.” Ray Bradbury is an author of many works, of which include The Pedestrian, There Will Come Soft Rains, A Sound of Thunder, and The Veldt. In these texts, there is a theme of a futuristic reality where destruction is to occur which might not be that far off from our own. This is purposeful, Bradbury claims to use his writing as a message to the masses calling them to open their eyes to the direction our world is hurdling towards. These texts deal with warnings of losing touch with the natural world and other humans, devaluing life, an increase in disastrous irresponsibility, and the most prominent being the abuse of technological advancements.

Read More

How Did Kurt Vonnegut Change Literature

879 Words | 4 Pages

so influential is his large repertoire of writing. Kurt wasn’t always a writer, according to family they all thought he’d be a “Jailbird” or in lifelong service to the military. They were wrong, on February 11, 1950 his first published written work titled “Report on The Barnhouse Effect” was published in Collier’s Weekly (1888-1957, 2012-2012) and had very little feedback instead of critics bashing it’s “non-structured style.” So it Goes. Vonnegut continued to write short stories while living in Gary, Indiana with his uncle who is characterized in his books Bagombo Snuff Box (1999)

Read More

Craft Move In Harrison Bergeron

792 Words | 4 Pages

Craft Moves for “Harrison Bergeron” Human beings all have different talents and skill sets. They have different levels of intelligence, attractiveness, and activities in which they excel. In “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, the government attempts to make everyone totally and irrevocably ‘equal’ by using handicaps.

Read More

The Dresden Bombing In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

1745 Words | 7 Pages

The creative ways Kurt Vonnegut intertwined the novels aspects to the bombing allowed for extreme emphasis and attention to be focused on the important event. The story of the Dresden air raid is not often told but through a different science fiction outlet Vonnegut was able to bring attention to the event. The significance of this somewhat ordinary science fiction novel is brought to life by the anti war message and details about World War

Read More

New Historicism In Slaughterhouse-Five

1106 Words | 5 Pages

People are influenced by the events that surround them. Individuals transform into a product of their environment and experiences of the time. The literature and art often reflects the time period in which it is written in, and Vonnegut’s novel is no exception. The novel takes place during World War II, but is written during the time of the Vietnam War. With the Vietnam War, came a lot of anti-war propaganda.

Read More

Social Criticism In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

1077 Words | 5 Pages

Trout uses science fiction and its different elements such as cognitive estrangement and structural fabulation in order to build a metaphor that guides the reader into thinking about an aspect of society that the author wants to criticize. This communicative piece intends to portray social criticism in the way Vonnegut does it, but taken to our reality and analyzing aspects we want to condemn. We opened the book on chapter nine and decided to write our own new plot as if Billy Pilgrim was the one reading it. We wrote the text and inserted it as part of the chapter in order to adhere it to the rest of society’s criticism seen in the book in the very best Vonnegut style. In order to interpret Vonnegut’s intentions and purpose of social criticism throughout Slaughterhouse Five, specially in chapter nine, it´s necessary to understand science fiction and its elements.

Read More

How Do Kurt Vonnegut And Sherman Alexie Use An Unreliable Narrator

1447 Words | 6 Pages

Both Kurt Vonnegut and Sherman Alexie utilize unreliable narrators in this exact fashion with their novels “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Flight”. Throughout Flight and Slaughterhouse Five, both authors utilize this element in order to push forth their intended theme of anti-violence. Throughout their respective plots, we can see evidence of Billy Pilgrim, the main character of Vonnegut’s novel, and Zits, the protagonist of Alexie’s story, both being unreliable narrators due to confirmation throughout each novel and the wild ideas within each character’s minds. Furthermore, we can connect the existence of the two character’s status of unreliable narrators to show how their unreliability is used in order to weave both novel’s themes of

Read More

Quotes From 'Grapes Of Wrath'

1533 Words | 7 Pages

1. “… and then suffered a mild nervous collapse. He was treated in a veteran’s hospital near Lake Placid, and was given shock treatments and released.” (Vonnegut,24) This quote has to do with Billy’s mental health because it states he had a breakdown and spent time in a hospital for treatment.

Read More

How Did Kurt Vonnegut Impact Society

2093 Words | 9 Pages

With a roller coaster of a life, from the highs of literary success, to the lows of his time in Dresden, Kurt Vonnegut had work that was decade-defining, serving as an outcry for the antiwar youth of the 60’s and 70’s, leading to an impact that is still felt today due to the credibility he lended the genre of

Read More

Harrison Bergeron's Use Of The Diction Of Harrison Bergeron

772 Words | 4 Pages

Harrison Bergeron Tone Essay This essay explains the many ways the author of the story “Harrison Bergeron” used to convey the tone absurdity towards society. His vast arsenal of literary techniques helped bring a better understanding of the story to the reader. Some of the many ways the author used to heighten the effect of the story were diction, tone, and irony. Those three techniques will be taken a further look at in this piece of writing.

Read More

Irony In Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse Five'

1076 Words | 5 Pages

Storytelling has been the epitome of human expression for thousands of years. Along with musicians and artists, talented storytellers use their work to share ideas with others, often in an effort to evoke emotion or to persuade people to think similarly. Every element in a story is carefully crafted by the author in order to communicate a desired message to his or her audience. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut incorporates irony into the story to express his belief that fighting wars is illogical.

Read More

Essay Comparing Time's Arrow And Slaughterhouse-Five

1729 Words | 7 Pages

Time’s Arrow and Slaughterhouse-Five are both novels with an unconventional approach. By defying the expectation that such writing ought to be sombre, they deliver their own brand of mourning. Vonnegut interweaves the horrors of war with the seemingly trivial and absurd to create greater impact. The language, which is so often blunt and direct to the point of vulgarity, takes on a different character in the darker moments. It is transformed into something more childlike and delicate, suddenly capable of conveying the aftermath of a massacre with simple respect.

Read More

More about Kurt Vonnegut's I Am The Doorway

Related Topics

Open Document