Social Chaos In Kurt Vonnegut's Siren Of Titan

The Quest for Order: Social Chaos in Kurt Vonnegut’s Siren of Titan

V. Balamurugan Dr. D. Shanmugam PhD Research Scholar Associate Professor Department of English English Wing, DDE Annamalai University Annamalai University

The individual’s search for absolute order and meaning within a chaotic universe is an important theme in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. Ordinary human consciousness, it seems, simply incompatible with what it cannot clarify and control. It requires it insists on as much form, as much meaning, and as little ambiguity and inconsistency, as possible. If precise truth, crisp definition, and orderly procession are not in evidence, we are uncomfortable. If we find ourselves lost in a blizzard, the first thing we may do is cast furtive glances in an attempt to locate recognizable objects or tracks in the snow that we hope will lead us quickly home, where familiarity lies in abundance.

Albert Camus, in his essay “An Absurd Reasoning,” states, “People have played on words and pretended to believe that refusing to grant a meaning to life necessarily leads to declaring that it is not worth living” (7). Recognition of chaos does, however, force one to acknowledge that both these potentially destructive options lurk close beneath the invented and accepted veils of meaning that enable us to live. In acknowledging absurdity, then, the creative consciousness willingly either creates additional veils of meaning, thus compromising its vision through a very real human need; or, aided by integrity and not a small amount of self-reflexive humor, the creative consciousness sacrifices finality and form to a life of pure depiction and incessant