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What Is The Theme Of 2 B By Kurt Vonnegut

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The short story, “2 B R 0 2 B”, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a science fiction short story published in January of 1962. The story is about a futuristic world in which all problems are solved like crimes, disabilities, or diseases. One of the main problems that was solved was finding a cure for aging. While this might seem like the dream to some, in reality it is pretty depressing having to deal with population control, and in this world people are praised for committing suicide to make room for new kids to be born. During the story, the main protagonist Wehling is talking to two people that work for the Federal Bureau of Termination, and they think that life is great. For Wehling however, life couldn’t be worse, he and his wife had just had …show more content…

Towards the middle of, “2 B R 0 2 B” Wehling finally starts to talk to the other characters. Dr. Hitz tells him that his triplets have just been born and he’s going to see them and Wehling, without emotion, says “hooray”. The doctor points out that Wehling doesn’t sound that happy, to which he says, “What man in my shoes wouldn’t be happy… All I have to do is pick out which one of the triplets is going to live, then deliver my maternal grandfather to the Happy Hooligan, and come back here with a receipt” (Vonnegut 5). When Wehling says this, the reader can clearly tell that he is being sarcastic and a lot of things are being said in this one sentence. One that he really points out is how he has to kill two of his triplets and only let one of them live, showing how inhumane this world has become because of needing population control. Another point that he makes is when he says he has to give his grandpa the Happy Hooligan and bring the receipt. For context, the Happy Hooligan is a nickname given to one of the suicide gas chambers in order to make it seem cheerful. Back to what Wehling said, he’s really pointing out the fact that paying to be killed like it’s a normal thing is just so inhumane and that death should be looked upon as a bad thing, not a good thing, and that you should enjoy life in the moment, not be thinking about how you’re going to die. The author uses both of these to show how solving the problem of aging created a huge problem of overpopulation, thus causing people to normalize and look up to

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