Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night is a novel that deals with the loyalties that humans
form to each other, as well as things and places. However, Vonnegut does not address
this issue by creating a cast of characters who are loyal and true to a particular person, place or thing; instead, he places the reader in a world that is seemingly void of all sense of loyalty and trustworthiness. Almost every character in this novel is apparently devoid of all ability to trust, and more significantly, be trusted. In his creation of this dark and uncertain world, Vonnegut is effectively emphasizing the importance of allegiances in one’s life. Through characters like Howard W. Campbell, Jr. and Resi Noth, among others, he proves that a life without loyalty and devotion is not a life worth living.
Each character is lacking the same core qualities and abilities, yet each shows this
deficiency in a different way - by betraying a country, another person, or themselves.
Because of their betrayals, each of them ends up miserable, in prison, or dead, with the
possible exception of Frank Wirtanen. Every life in this novel is somehow affected by
the deceit and inability to sustain any kind of commitment that these characters so
tragically display.
Howard W. Campbell, Jr., the main character of the novel, experiences the most
severe and damaging lack of loyalty and coherency in his life. Howard’s problems begin
when he agrees to become an American spy posing as a Minister of Propaganda for the
Nazis during World War II. No one knows of his true identity except for himself and
three other men; therefore, everyone believes Howard to be a Nazi. At times, it seems as
though Howard himself is not entirely sure whether or not he is a Naz...
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Vonnegut, Kurt. Mother Night. New York: Random House, 1966.
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St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. 26 Nov. 2002.
It was no secret that when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, countless Americans were frightened on what will happen next. The attack transpiring during WW2 only added to the hysteria of American citizens. According to the article “Betrayed by America” it expressed,”After the bombing many members of the public and media began calling for anyone of Japanese ancestry။citizens or not။to be removed from the West Coast.”(7) The corroboration supports the reason why America interned Japanese-Americans because it talks about Americans wanting to remove Japanese-Americans from the West Coast due to Japan bombing America. Japan bombing America led to Americans grow fear and hysteria. Fear due to the recent attack caused internment because Americans were afraid of what people with Japanese ancestry could do. In order to cease the hysteria, America turned to internment. American logic tells us that by getting the Japanese-Americans interned, many
Kurt Vonnegut, critically acclaimed author of several best-selling novels, uses self-expression and psychological manipulation to stress to the reader his beliefs and ideas dispersed within the context of Cat's Cradle. From reading this novel, one might attribute perplexity pondering over the plot and general story line of the book. Cat's Cradle entangles itself in many interesting changes of events; strange outlandish ideas and psychological "black holes" can be found with just the flip of a page.
The novel is opened with a chapter about the making of novel, with scattered thoughts from Vonnegut. The novel is closed with a chapter written mainly from the perspective of the author. Vonnegut uses this time to blatantly state his own opinions about different matters in the novel and to provide commentary. He emphasizes through these chapters, in his own subtle way, the importance a belief in free will has in stopping war and in being human. He says at the beginning of the book that he believes what many believe: that stopping a war is like stopping a glacier. However, despite this, he uses his free will to do everything in his power to stop war. In a conversation with his friend’s wife in the first chapter, he states
Wood, Karen and Charles. “The Vonnegut Effect: Science Fiction and Beyond.” The Vonnegut Statement. Vol. 5. 1937. 133-57. The GaleGroup. Web. 10 March. 2014.
Vonnegut powers uniformity on America in the regions of excellence, quality, and insight. He makes a world in which lovely individuals wear veils to cover their countenances and solid
In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the main character Hamlet experiences many different and puzzling emotions. He toys with the idea of killing himself and then plays with the idea of murdering others. Many people ask themselves who or what is this man and what is going on inside his head. The most common question asked about him is whether or not he is sane or insane. Although the door seems to swing both ways many see him as a sane person with one thought on his mind, and that is revenge. The first point of his sanity is while speaking with Horatio in the beginning of the play, secondly is the fact of his wittiness with the other characters and finally, his soliloquy.
Reed, Peter J. and Marc Leeds eds. The Vonnegut Chronicles: Interviews and Essays. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.
Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany during World War II and the Holocaust, was the mastermind behind this tragic event. He, at one time, actually attempted to overthrow the German government. This resulted in him being arrested. He was supposed to serve five years in prison, but ended up only spending about nine months in prison. While he was in jail he wrote an autobiography called Mein Kampf ("My Struggles"), about the struggles he faced in his lifetime. The book became widely popular and sold millions of copies worldwide. Once he was released from jail, he was actually accepted into the German government as Chancellor. With his place in the government he was able to change the law in a way that made him a self-appointed dictator. We learn about these events because it's important to know how it all started and how certain events lead to others, all leading up to the main event; The Holocaust.
His novel lets the reader get personal with Vonnegut. The novel lets readers know his thoughts on such controversial topics.He is not your typical author. He talks about topics most do not even speak about with their families in worry that it would cause a fight.The topics he covers sets him apart from every other author. He is not afraid to speak his mind, to let people know his views. Kurt Vonnegut is not afraid to be himself and that is what makes his novel so extraordinary. Vonnegut shows that he is not a religious man and does not trust the government that is claimed to be corrupt. He shows that he has lost all hope in humanity because of how much the human race has destroyed the earth. That is why on page eighty-seven he states, “So I am a man without a
Vonnegut's writing style throughout the novel is very flip, light, and sarcastic. The narrator's observations and the events occurring during the novel reflect a dark view of humanity which can only be mocked by humor. At the beginning of the novel the narrator is researching for a book he is writing. The book was to be about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the lives of the people who created the bomb. The narrator travels through the plot of the story, with characters flying in and out, in almost a daze. He is involved in events which are helplessly beyond his control, but which are inevitably leading to a destination at the end.
I think one thing that Vonnegut is trying to show us is that man too easily accepts things as valid without questioning. Refering to this, Newt, another character, says, "No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's…No damn cat, and no damn cradle" (114).
The newspaper industry presaged its decline after the introduction of the television and televised broadcasting in the 1950s and then after the emergence of the internet to the public in the 1990s and the 21st century with its myriad of media choices for people. Since then the readership of printed media has declined whilst digital numbers continue to climb. This is mostly due to television and the internet being able to offer immediate information to viewers and breaking news stories, in a more visually stimulating way with sound, moving images and video. Newspapers are confined to paper and ink and are not considered as ‘alive’ as these other mediums.
Thirty years ago, if I told you that the primary means of communicating and disseminating information would be a series of interconnected computer networks you would of thought I was watching Star Trek or reading a science fiction novel. In 2010, the future of mass media is upon us today; the Internet. The Internet is and will only grow in the future as the primary means of delivering news, information and entertainment to the vast majority of Americans. Mass media as we know it today will take new shape and form in the next few years with the convergence and migration of three legacy mediums (Television, Radio, Newspaper) into one that is based on the Internet and will replace these mediums forever changing the face of journalism, media and politics. In this paper I will attempt to explain the transition of print media to one of the internet, how the shift to an internet based media environment will impact journalism and mass media, and how this migration will benefit society and forever change the dynamic of news and politics.
According to Nielsen's survey on readership for local newspaper, The New Paper, a 2.5% percent dip has been recorded from 2012 to 2013. The latest survey found a decline in readership of 459,000 to 363,000. The drop in readership was in line with all the other major newspapers, which experienced readers gradually moving from print media to online media (Othman, 2013).