Kurt Vonnegut Dark Humor Essay

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Kurt Vonnegut: Dark Humor in American Literature Kurt Vonnegut was a well-known author for his dark humor and wit in Slaughterhouse Five and Cat’s Cradle mocking war, science, and religion making the reader understand the horrors through humor. According to Webster Dictionary, black humor is humor marked by the use of usually morbid, ironic, grotesquely comic episodes. (Webster) Humor is an almost physiological response to fear and frustration. (Cargas) Comedy appeals are made to the head, not the heart and because of the coldly rational approach; comedy lifts us out of the emotional aspects of an idea. (Stevenson) Black humor is humor about weak, intelligent people in hopeless situations, and it’s people laughing in the middle of political helplessness. (Davis) The absurdity is usually presented in two ways: through the chaos of an unordered universe or through the flaws of mortal man, which is presented in many of Vonnegut’s novels. (Zhou) Slaughterhouse Five is a classic …show more content…

Knowing the fact about the beneficial uses of protein does nothing for society. Another example of the truth not benefiting society is when Vonnegut makes up the scientific advancement, Ice-nine, mocking atomic bombs. Although we discovered and better our knowledge of the atom bomb, it didn’t better mankind instead it killed hundreds of thousands of lives. In Cat’s Cradle the President of San Lorenzo, Papa, elects Hoenikker for the new president because Papa knows Hoenikker has science, Ice-nine, and he believes that because he has science he can better the society. Because of this assumption, he disregards the consequences of science and in the end Ice-nine brings the world to an end.

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