Kurt Vonnegut Sarcasm and Blac
Kurt Vonnegut Sarcasm and BlacSarcasm and Black Humor
Kurt Vonnegut uses sarcasm to portray the humor, foolishness, and futility of real life issues, people events, and expectations. In his books, he writes like a satire, but in reality, that�s not what it really is. He has many opinions and questions of mans� search for the meaning of life. Objects, events, and people, of real life, are represented in his books and are put into Vonnegut's context. Characters in his books are put through a lot of adversity and find out they do not have the ability to control or change fate. War and religion are often questioned in Vonnegut�s books. All of these things, become victims of Vonnegut�s sarcasm and satire.
A unique writing style in most of his books, he writes like a satire to attack a satire and its ideal world with definite answers (Kennard 1). A significant part to Vonnegut�s books is the satiric and humorous qualities used to emphasize the serious points of his books. In the books, which are considered science fiction, contain wild black humor, which is uncommon amongst these types of books (Overview 1). His humor targets the futility of warfare, the negative effects of technology, and the potential of man�s evil to cause havoc. He laughs and is pessimistic towards government and religion (Introduction 1). Vonnegut is anti-technology, anti-machine, and anti-science and he shows this throughout his books (Overview 1).
There is a concern of genuine human questions throughout his books. These questions often are about war, peace, technology, and human happiness. These questions recur throughout his books and are answered ridiculously (1). He likes to emphasize the �comic absurdity� of man looking for meaning and order in his life when the character exists in a �meaningless and disorderly universe� (Introduction 1). Vonnegut directs his satire to his characters. He also directs most of this satire to himself as much as he does to society (Overview 1).
Questions are often asked about the meaning of life in his books to be sarcastic. For example, he asked people, �When was it that their art gave them the most satisfaction. When was it framed and exhibited? When it was published or sold? When it was praised by loved ones or an important critic?� (Vonnegut Homepage 1). This represents his questioning man when their lives become important. Only a sarcastic man would ask a question like this and be able to hide its real meaning from those who are futile. Another one of Vonnegut�s questions that attack man�s need for absolutes is, �If god created the world, then who created god?� (Kennard 2). This is a good example of a satiric question, which is addressed in many of his books. Vonnegut provides funny and unrealistic answers to his question (Overview 7).
Vonnegut likes to target his readers too. He...
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