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Vonnegut's Messengers
Vonnegut's Messengers
"He said he was a confidential messenger!"
(Vonnegut, Sirens, 155)
Kurt Vonnegut once said "Modern humans roast people alive, tear their arms and legs off, or whatever, using airplanes or missile launchers or ships or artillery batteries-and do not hear their screams." (Vonnegut, The Humanist, 5) It is statements like that which give insight into how low Vonnegut believes humanity has sunk. Such as it is, the only way for people to seemingly understand anything that is occurring in this insane world is to be told by another being. In an attempt to try and convey his own messages of morality and what is wrong with modern society to the beings on Earth, Kurt Vonnegut has used messengers ranging from Malachi Constant to Billy Pilgrim in his stories Slaughterhouse-Five and The Sirens of Titan in an attempt to show people the manipulations of the military, the laughable concept of total equality, and still offer a glimmer of hope. The small bit of hope that Vonnegut offers derives itself from a combination of all his singular messages into one large message. The large message is a message of self-suffiency.
In the futuristic setting of The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut uses a three person ploy in the attempt to convey certain messages to his readers. Whether it be the meaning of life, the absurdity of perfect equality, or the brainwashing of the military, Vonnegut uses the characters of his novels to deliver important messages to the masses. The very name of one of Vonnegut's main characters (Malachi Constant) is symbolically translated into even meaning "faithful messenger." (Vonnegut, Sirens, 11) It is through Malachi (also referred to as Unk and the Space Wanderer) that Vonnegut shows criticisms he has for several establishments. One of the most interesting messages that is taken from Sirens is that of a message which Malachi ultimately writes to himself. After having his mind swept clean, Malachi reads a message he wrote to himself before his brainwashing, a gesture which is symbolic of the often blind obedience one takes towards the military. The only way in which Malachi is able to figure out what is right and wrong about the military is not to take the word of a commanding officer, but rather, to listen to himself. However, the blind obedience gives those characters within the military a certain shield to society in to which Vonnegut responds by saying "The more pain I train myself to stand, the more I learn." (Vonnegut, Sirens, 125) This comment, taken out of context, shows how Malachi's own consciousness is working to give him the message that military is not right, and the only way things are going to change is if he learns to accept the truth.
When Malachi later attempts to make right all that the military has dissolved of his former life, he takes the guise of a military messenger in order to attempt to free his wife. It is in this guise of the messenger talking to Bee that Vonnegut states the effect the military has on the mind of most soldiers morals; "I've forgotten so much… We all have!" It is that statement which embodies what Vonnegut believes the military does to all soldiers and people involved in war. In order to give soldiers a certain type of impunity, they lie to them making them believe that everything the military will do is right. However, as the military pushes in the message of an almost biblical righteousness, they also attempt to silence a person inner-feelings of right, wrong, and morality. It is only by an outside source that people are able to comprehend what the military is doing to the minds of people, basically, making them forget everything they once held sacred.
However, Malachi is not the only messenger that Vonnegut uses in Sirens. One of the other key messenger's of the story is that of Winston Niles Rumfoord. Sadly enough, it is through Rumfoord that a key commentary is made on not only the stupidity of war, but the desired result of it as well. Through various means, Rumfoord becomes able to raise an army on Mars which he later uses as a force of martyrs in an attempt to unify the world. Through this work, Vonnegut shows what is the desired result of every war from a ludicrous extreme. By having the hundreds of thousands of Martians slaughtered, Rumfoord is later capable of spreading his universal message of peace to the earth as well as spearhead a new religious movement. It is only through the war formulated by Rumfoord that the humans are finally able to see how horrible war is and how pointless the slaughter of that war had been: "Let us have, for a change, a magnificently-led few who die for a great deal." (Vonnegut, Sirens, 177). Unlike in many past wars when men had given their lives to stop a singular powerful ruler, Rumfoord shows that the error was in not having a singular powerful leader. The problem was that there was no underlying aspect to unite the people of the world. In fact, as history has shown, certain truths were only applicable to certain people leading to small groups coming together. These groups would then often come to blows with people who didn't share that same unique perspective, such as the Nazi movement.
It is at this point that Rumforod is capable to unite the world by means of the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. Through Rumfoord, it appears Vonnegut is making his own jabs at religion with what Leonard Mustazza refers to as his "deceptive voice" (Mustazza, 455). Through the message of planetary equality that Rumfoord spouts to the masses, Vonnegut is sharing an insight to what he sees as the absurdity of religion. Being, as he states, "A Christ-worshiping atheist" (Vonnegut, Humanist, 5). Vonnegut is attempting to disembody the framework of such religions, like Christianity, and give people a wider view of the what it will truly take to unify the world. It is through this that he proposes it is possible that God will not be the person who will bring the world together in peace in harmony, rather, that it is the job of humans to make peace on their little flying orb of dirt called Earth.
As well, a Rumfoord later makes an appearance in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five in which he is portrayed as a retired soldier in a hospital, defending the actions of the military. When observing Rumfoord in Slaughterhouse-Five, Phillip Watts suggests "There is little doubt Rumfoord, a fictional Harvard historian, express's the orthodox government and academic view of war." (Watts, 275). Rumfoords work as a way of allowing Vonnegut to show two sides to every person. While in one book a Rumfoord functions as an almost heavenly messenger, wishing to bring upheaval to all society, in the other he represents the views of the world as is and how it should not be changed. However, the use of Rumfoord in both leads to the idea that perhaps the answer is neither way of in the distance, as in Sirens, or right in front of us, as in Slaughterhouse. It seems almost as if Vonnegut is attempting to bring forth the idea that the answer to all our problems may already be here, however, it can not yet be seen due to the obstructions placed in our path by things such as war and religion.
While Rumfoord is being used as Vonnegut's messenger for that particular message, Vonnegut also takes time to make a few notable critique's on the ideology of what a "perfect world" truly is. Rather then sending the message that the idea of total equality is absurd through words, however, Vonnegut allows the reader to see its absurdity by way of his lyrical language and supplied visuals in the character of Reverend C. Horner Redwine. When Malachi meets Redwine, he quickly notices all of the weights which he has on. In describing Redwine's appearance, Vonnegut states that "balls of shot in the handicap bags on his wrists shifted swishingly, drawing Unk's attention. From the handicap bags, Unk's attention made an easy jump to the heavy slab of iron on Redwine's chest." (Vonnegut, Sirens, 230) After Redwine explains that all people must wear the weights as a means of achieving equality, the reader is made to see that to live in a world of perfect equality would mean the censorship of the abilities people are given at birth. Through the appearance of Redwine and the religion of Rumfoord, Vonnegut is able to communicate what is wrong with out society as it is, and in what it wishes to eventually achieve.
In one of his other opuses, Vonnegut once again returns to the idea that humans need a messenger in order to understand what is wrong and right with the world as a whole. In the book Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut uses characters ranging from the lack-luster time traveling Billy Pilgrim to the Tralfamadorians to attempt to show the reader several philosophical ideas, as well as moral ones. Though Pilgrim is unaware of it during the time he is a soldier, he is capable of becoming a messenger towards the end of his life. When Billy is killed by a sniper, he is not reluctant to die, nor is he mad. Billy manages to pass on the message that death is not infinite, though there are times when people are dead in the world, there are also times when they are alive. The relevance of this message can be put into an intriguing context when one places into the confines of the book.
Though Vonnegut responds to every death as "So it goes," the importance of the belief that people are only dead in a moment becomes all the more understandable. Whether it be as a way of coping with death or attempting to give light to an otherwise hopeless situation, the idea that people are always alive can make events such as the bombing of Dresden less severe. If people were forced to live with the idea of all the deaths and tragedys that have occurred in wars and similar circumstances, it might go as far as destroying all hope of a better world. In Pilgrim's philosophy, it seems only reasonable that the people at Dresden died. The people would have died at some point anyway, and if they were to be dead then as opposed to later, it would make no difference. Though the bombing of Dresden was atrocious, death does come to all people at some point, and having the belief that all the people at Dresden who died are still alive at other moments works as a means of giving one some solace that things aren't completely hopeless.
Following in the idea that all people are alive at some point, Vonnegut uses the alien race of the Tralfamadorians in an attempt to try give more proof that events such as Dresden aren't quite as horrid as they may seem. When Billy Pilgrim addresses the concept of free will with the Tralfamadorians, they respond by saying "If I hadn't spent so much time studying Earthlings… I wouldn't have any idea what was meant by `free will.' I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, 86) The idea that there is no such thing as free will and that all events are fated to happen shows that there is nothing that can be done about the horrible events which have occurred in the world's past. The bombing of Dresden, for instance, could never have been changed. Since it did happen, it had to happen. There is nothing that a person could have done to change the events leading up to and including the incident. However, in this belief that all things must happen because they are supposed to, Vonnegut shows the idea that people can not be dependant on an outside source for salvation.
Since all things are meant to happen and can not be stopped, faith in a higher being, such as God, becomes an absurdity. Praying to anything, be it God, Buddha, or a rutabaga, is completely pointless. In such a way, Vonnegut harkens back to the same religious idea that he had first brought up in Sirens of Titan. Though the final idea in both may be somewhat different, they both seem to work towards the same God the Utterly Indifferent. Whether God is present or not is unimportant, the world is supposed to happen a certain way, and all the prayers a person makes to him will not change a thing. Babies will continue to die in childbirth, people will steal from each-other and create horrible diseases, and, most importantly, events such as the bombing of Dresden will continue to happen.
Vonnegut, though, still has far more to say on the idea of religion, that would not seem to be all that obvious. By using the novels of Kilgore Trout to express certain philosophical ideas, Vonnegut is not only reinforcing the idea that all events are fated to occur, but more importantly, making his own flat out attack on the Bible as noted by the fact that "Trout is a Vonnegut alter-ego who pops up in several novels" (Smith, 68). Though this may seem absurd, the message is there
The messages in the novels by Kilgore Trout are seen as philosophically sound, however, the actual grammar and structure is seen as some horrid, or unearthly. It is in such a way that the novels of Trout become something of a book of morality. In such a way, the Bible can be perceived similarly. While many people will praise the Bible for the virtues it extols, many people see certain impossibilities in the events portrayed and take the book to be more meaningful as a book of life lessons, kindness, and morality. In such a way, both Trout's science fiction novels and the Bible can be seen as almost identical pieces of literature, or at least, such is the perception of Vonnegut.
While it may seem that this may in fact be praise of the Bible, the fact of the matter is that Trout is a science-fiction writer. All of his writing is done as a means of entertaining people and giving a vision of the world outside of any fathomable reality. As such, Vonnegut it portraying the Bible as such a work. As such, Vonnegut uses Trout as a messenger to state his own views on established religion. It is Trout that present Vonnegut's "considerable authorial presence within the text." (Dewey, 576) The Bible, though not grammatically amazing, contains some key ideas and concepts as what is relevant in living a good life. As well, the Bible often times lends itself as a good means of understanding the world we live in through unbelievable circumstances (burning bushes [Exodus], parted red seas [Exodus], women being formed from a rib [Genesis] ). However, despite all the great ideas the Bible presents, it should not be taken as a strict code as to the way life should be lived. Similar to how no one should believe the events of Trout's books, people who are Christian should also not take the writings of the Bible entirely serious. Rather, people should take the concepts present in the Bible, the morals as it were, and apply those to their lives, not the "fictitious" characters such as God or the myths of Jesus deeds. Vonnegut even makes this idea more clear when he states one of Trout's books is about Jesus "Another Kilgore Trout book… was about a man who built a time machine so he could go back and see Jesus." (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, 202). By doing this Jesus becomes one of Trout's own fictitious characters, apparently, a character on the same level as Trout's other creations, such as philosophical Tralfamadorians and trees which sprout money.
Though at times Vonnegut's messages may seem to contradict each other, there are certain ties which can be made between them. As stated earlier, the idea of a fated society lends itself quite well to the concept of a God which doesn't care. If the world is composed in such a way that people can do nothing to change the outcome of events, praying to a deity would seem utterly pointless. Taking that as it is, the message which is brought forward by Pilgrim begins to make more sense. If we are living in a society in which we are unable to change the course of events and faith becomes irrelevant, one of the only ideas that may be able to keep people in line is the idea that people are not as eternally dead as we believe, but rather, that they are eternally living in one moment or another. As well, the idea that people are the only ones that can make the world a better place is linked to not only the idea that God is either apathetic or not existent, but also the idea that people should adhere only to the morals of the Bible.
Through his satire and situations, Vonnegut uses the messengers in Slaughterhouse-Five and The Sirens of Titan to attempt to show what the world is like, what it could be like, and what we must do to avoid it. He holds to the idea that a benevolent God is non-existent and that any change that is supposed to happen to the world for the better must come from the people. Taken by themselves, each message of Vonnegut's, whether it be his satirical look at religion through Church of God the Utterly Indifferent, or the concept that the Bible is no more credible then a science fiction novel, offers a quick an interesting look at any singular aspect of society. When all the messages are put together, though, they finally give a clear view of what Vonnegut is trying to say about the world, and everything on it, as a whole.
By examining all the messages and messengers that Vonnegut uses in his works, he begins to formulate an image of what the big picture truly is. As Vonnegut once stated in an interview, "There are threads connecting all of my books." (Smith, 228). Basically, all the ideas of Vonnegut's works seem to basically lead to the conclusion that "it is all up to us." Humanity can not simply carry on holding to beliefs of something that might or might not exist in the hope that the next life is a better one. People must attempt to live a good life, exercising morals of what is right and wrong, but realizing that the only circumstances that will be a result is a better world. War, death, famine, all of these things are inescapable, however, people can attempt to stop them. While it may be impossible to live in a society of perfect equality, ever, we should at least be tolerant of our differences towards each other. In the end, Vonnegut's message is a simple one of peace.
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