Humor in Kurt Vonnegut Literature
Uploaded by srheric on Apr 23, 2007
Humor in Kurt Vonnegut Literature
When Kurt Vonnegut wants to make something funny, he uses his ability to play with words to his advantage. Throughout the book, Welcome to the Monkey House, he is able to make me laugh. The way he structures his words, makes me want to read on.
In the story “EPICAC” he is able to tell a story about a love triangle between two people and a computer. One line from that story is “… he was a whole lot less like a machine than plenty of people I know.” He was talking about how the computer was a machine, but there were people he knew that were even more like machines. The way he expresses his thoughts, makes me laugh almost every time. Another good line form that story is “Pat, loosen up and marry me.” There was no formal proposal; it was just a straight out statement. Pat then sarcastically replies by saying that he is so romantic and that she “… could get more warmth out of a sack of frozen CO2.” Things like that make me laugh out loud.
In the story “Miss Temptation,” a funny line is when Susanna says that she’s an actress, and Fuller replies, “You can say that again. … Greatest actress in the world, American women.” When Vonnegut gets going, he can’t stop, even if he has to offend people at the same time. Fuller then goes to say that “ you wouldn’t even hold hands with me to keep me from falling off a cliff.” Lines like those are pretty funny because of what’s happening around it. Fuller is exploding at Susanna, and his only intention is to make her cry. He has no remorse for anything he said, and he doesn’t even care.
To open the book, he has the story “Where I Live.” It is about a small town in Cape Cod, and it is so old. When an encyclopedia salesman goes into the library and finds the newest reference book to be of 1938, he tells the librarian that many important things have happened like penicillin and Hitler’s invasion of Poland. That blunt humor can be found throughout the story and the book, and it just gets better. This is another one from that story: “… he hit...