In Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut develops his thesis regarding the power of ideas and what they can do to humans, mainly through the two main characters in the novel, Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout. Dwayne Hoover is an unstable man. He is first introduced to the reader as being “fabulously well-to do,” and possessing “oodles of charm.” However, Hoover is afflicted by “bad chemicals,” in his mind. These bad chemicals, when working in tandem with bad ideas delivered by Trout, lead Dwayne to believe some radical beliefs regarding his fellow human beings. He decides that he is the only human being who has free will, and that all events occur simply for him to react to. Vonnegut creates a character with this mindset in order to warn the reader of the dangers of solipsistic thinking. He creates a person who can react to his circumstances with this view of the world, so that readers can understand him as a negative example and learn from his mistakes. Hoover winds up violently injuring 11 people in his town. He breaks their ribs, ruptures their …show more content…
Vonnegut describes him as having become “a pioneer in the field of mental health,” and, “advancing his theories disguised as science-fiction.” He dies a pioneer, after having won a Nobel Prize for Medicine. His ideas have propelled him to a position of affluence and fame.
It is important to note the different endings for the two characters. Both undergo a transformation due to ideas. Dwayne Hoover goes from being fabulously wealthy to being “rendered destitute,” by the lawsuits filed against him for his violent rampage. Kilgore Trout goes from owning “doodley squat,” to becoming, “a great artist and scientist.” Vonnegut gives the happy ending to the character who wields the power of ideas, and the tragic ending to the character who is overcome by them. Vonnegut is posing the notion that ideas have the power to destroy or redeem a person. It just depends on how one uses