Pressure In Kurt Vonnegut's The Lie

Pressure, the one thing that can single-handedly change normal behaviors to the strange and the foreign; the one force that toys with emotions. It makes the mind commit the worst of atrocities, or the best of blessings upon oneself or unto the surrounding people. Pressure is the biggest factor in what changes people, pressure forces change. The man of grandeur and dignity from the story “The Lie” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Doctor Remenzel, is a man who finds himself being played with emotionally by internal pressures. Thus, he is forced into committing an inconceivable act of hypocrisy and having drastic behavioral changes wrought upon himself. Doctor Remenzel enters the story as a man who is driven and focused, caring little about his loved ones in their fanciful Rolls-Royce, utterly entranced in the plans of an expansion

This dormitory was to be at a grandiose preparatory school in North Marston, Massachusetts, this school is named the Whitehill school for boys. The school where when the doctor is asked how many Remenzels have gone to said school, he replies as such, “ ‘That’s like asking how many people are dead in a cemetery’... ‘All of ‘em.’ ”. To add to this long traditional upbringing, is the Doctor’s own son, Eli Remenzel, who ironically has the same name as the memorial dormitory the doctor is working so diligently on. As we can see, Doctor Remenzel plays by the path that is set for him, and is keen upon following the long-instituted traditions of his family; he is dead-set upon keeping the honor, respect, and dignity in the family name. Alas, when everything goes according to plans, even the strongest of plans are in and of themselves flawed and will eventually crumble. Perfection is a concept of fantasies and faux realities, everything and everyone will have their imperfections, and Doctor Remenzel is of no exception. Even with all of the money to his name, he isn’t invincible, he deals with all of the internal struggles and conflicts as everyone