Grain of Hope in Breakfast of Champions
“I think I am trying to clear my head of all the junk in there...the flags...I’m throwing out characters from my other books too. I’m not going to put on any more puppet shows.”
This proud exclamation is made in the introduction of Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions. It caught my attention and drew me to continue reading. The book continues to take the reader on a bizarre journey through the human mind. Our mental trip is made easier through Vonnegut’s childlike “artwork,” which mostly consists of underwear, guns, cows, and other odds and ends. Finishing the introduction I was instantly fed a synapse of the plot.
The story follows the mental decline of a rich Pontiac dealer, Dwayne Hoover, and the rise of an unknown science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout, who is to become one of the most beloved and respected human beings in history. All this is revealed on the first page. In my closed mind, I figured that I already knew the plot, so there was no point in continuing. On a whim, I flipped through the book and saw the picture of a gravestone. On the gravestone was written, “Not even the Creator of the universe knew what the man was going to say next-perhaps the man was a better universe in its infancy.” For some reason this rather simple line hooked me and so I went back to page one and decided to read a bit more. To be honest, I’m glad I did.
As soon as I finished the first chapter, I was really hooked. It was one of the few novels I had ever read straight through from beginning to end in one all-night sitting. I’ll admit-so far this essay has been more of a narrative telling of my exploits with this novel, but I felt it necessary to explain a little about my initial feelings.
This book is pregnant with symbols. Many of the mechanics of the book (including the chapters) became symbols in Vonnegut’s hands. The first chapter goes into American culture in depth. It explains that in our country color means everything. “The sea pirates were white. The people who were already on the continent, who were already living full and imaginative lives, were copper-colored. When slavery was introduced, the slaves were black.” He then goes on to demonstrate the difference between the classes in our country: “This country, where there was still plenty of everything, was opposed to communism. It didn’t think that earthlings who had a lot should share it with others unless they really wanted to, and most of them didn’t want to. Dwayne Hoover was fabulously wealthy and Kilgore Trout had doodley squat.” His poking fun at the important symbols of America (E Pluribus Unum/In nonsense is strength), and his description of the national anthem as being gibberish with a sprinkling of question marks, sets the tone for the rest of the novel.
At this point I was 13 pages into the novel and realized that the plot was thrown on the back-burner in order for Vonnegut to make a long, painfully honest declaration about America. Yes, it was overly crude. Yes, it was overly vulgar. But, also, yes, it was true in many ways. Sure Vonnegut has an extreme point of view, but that doesn’t stop him from getting his message across. His message is one of the necessity for free will and how easily one can be chewed up and spit out by the grinding wheels that constitute our society. Nothing is sacred to Vonnegut. He pokes fun at race relations (the scenes between the poor black man and Dwayne Hoover were particularly humorous, yet, they made me realize how bad things were at the time of this novel), and sex, homosexuality, pollution, and most of all the futility of success. He shows how easy it could be to gain success and how hard it is for success to destroy someone.
Interesting use of symbols is Vonnegut’s strong point. His main running symbols were Kilgore’s commentaries about the world. Kilgore is a science fiction writer whose work is what causes Dwayne to finally go over the edge. The book is peppered with different parts of stories that Kilgore has written but has received no credit or money for them. Some of these stories (especially my favorite about the tap-dancing alien who gets killed by a farmer) are just shallow symbols left in plain view for the reader to interpret with limited free thought required. Some, like the one about the planet of the automobiles, take a little more introspection by the reader and they hold a much more personal meaning to each reader.
The most important story is the one where Creator of the Universe writes a letter to the reader explaining that the reader was the only true human on the planet. All others are robots put there for his amusement. Dwayne ends up reading Kilgore’s book and loses his mind. Dwayne takes the book as an actual letter from the Creator and decides to rebel against it by attacking everyone around him.
The ending is tragically final, but it contains a large “grain” of hope. Vonnegut’s last word in the novel is a huge ETC. Nothing is ever truly over. Partner sites: Rottweiler, Spanish immersion program Spain, and Free Death of a Salesman Essays