The Ultimate Failure Of An Oppressive Government In A Futuristic Society In The Stories Of Kurt Vonnegut

Throughout history, mankind has displayed that an oppressive government does not succeed. A government dictatorship is the overbearing power or control of a nation led by a dictator. Specifically, infamous dictators like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro have proved to be unsuccessful in implementing their governmental values and beliefs to control people. These men have led governments that limit morals and values of a society and denounce citizen’s freedoms. With American writers, the purpose of satire is used to expose the absurdity of the government through humor, irony, and exaggeration. It is important to recognize that the style of satire is utilized to defy the government, and show that it does not thrive in times of overpopulation, forced equality, and through human nature and reproduction, during futuristic times.

Various futuristic societies have proved to be a victim of excessive government dictatorship, and this idea is prominent in Kurt Vonnegut’s collection of stories in Welcome to the Monkey House. Through his depressing childhood and experiences in World War II, Kurt Vonnegut started to question faults in the government from the inhumane treatment of society, and react against these forms of government that prevent people from living their lives peacefully. Kurt Vonnegut criticizes government's dictatorial control through his short stories of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Welcome to the Monkey House, and Harrison Bergeron. Vonnegut begins his criticism of overbearing government control with the theme of overpopulation in his story, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. The major conflict of the story focuses on an anti-gerasone serum that is imposed on the people of New York City, in the year 2158 A. D. This anti-aging serum makes living conditions unbearable, specifically for the Schwartz family, as they ration food for all of their family members. To point out this problem, Lou Schwartz explains how “the world wouldn’t be able to support twelve billion people if it wasn’t for processed seaweed and sawdust”.

With the population growing exponentially, it has resulted in a huge overpopulation of New York, the only smart thing to do is ration food and even space to keep the existence of the population. In addition to rationing food, it seems that when the government thought of providing an anti-gerasone to the population, they completely ignored the question of how a continuously increasing society can live in cramped conditions without any privileges of privacy. As the Schwartz family live their daily lives, privacy is considered a luxury. This is because they live in a small and crowded apartment, and are surrounded by each other everyday, resulting in no privacy whatsoever. Moreover, the government’s control over the fast growing population with an anti-gerasone has led to the rationing of food and overall privacy being taken away.

A second way that Vonnegut satirizes the high-handed governmental control with overpopulation in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, is with the effect the anti-gerasone has on the characters. With the anti-gerasone being instrumented into the Schwartz’ lives, it shows their true colors and plays out their greed. Since Gramps is very old yet still alive, and dictates who can sleep in the big bedroom, gluttony takes over the characters’ thoughts. In a desire to have her own room with Lou, Em states that “Sometimes I get so mad, I feel like just up and diluting his anti-gerasone”. Em’s selfishness is displayed as she is willing to take matters into her own hands, and kill Gramps if it means she and Lou can live and sleep in the spacious bedroom. In addition, the Schwartz family rivalries in trying to end Gramp’s rule, have led to attempts of killing Gramps by diluting his anti-gerasone. The Schwartz family serves miserable lives in a crowded world, and their ambition to live individually has manifested immensely, that they break out into a riot while reading Gramps’ will and testament, after thinking that they killed him by diluting his anti-gerasone. Overall, the government’s control in the overpopulation of New York with an anti-gerasone has affected the characters of the story by exhibiting their greed. At the end of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Vonnegut ridicules the government’s control in overpopulation through his style of satire. As Gramps watches a commercial for the super-anti-gerasone, the commercial asks viewers if they would pay 5,000 dollars to be indistinguishable from everyone else in the world. This contradicts Lou and Em Schwartz’s feelings about the anti-gerasone, because they despise how it’s changing their lives negatively. Furthermore, the super-anti-gerasone “satirizes the advertising world’s promotion of the desire among people to look young and alike”. This also challenges the character’s aspirations of being different from everyone in the world both physically, specifically by looking young, and socially in the sense of living independent lives from everyone else.

Overall, Kurt Vonnegut’s use of satire to defy governmental domination is demonstrated with the anti-gerasone serum, and how it changes the character’s personalities. Another way that Vonnegut satirizes government’s dictatorial control over people is with the theme of human nature and reproduction in his story Welcome to the Monkey House. The main issue of the story targets ethical birth control pills for men and women, that has made reproduction lifeless. Vonnegut states that to attack the growth of a thriving society, the World Government has taken two-pronged actions, with the encouragement of ethical suicide and mandatory ethical birth control. In an effort to prevent Americans from overpopulating themselves out of existence, the government felt they have to do something in order to control citizens’ strong will to live. Martha Meek argues that “For Vonnegut, the world’s dilemma is the result of advanced technology combined with backward human attitudes”. Through ethical suicide parlors, suicide is voluntary, but at the same time, the law requires citizens to take the ethical birth control pills. In this case, not only does the government control birth, but it also manipulates people’s sexuality, which brings into question whether this population control of the government is righteous. Vonnegut’s mocking of the government illustrates how a society now questions their sexuality and morals. In the story, “the pills were ethical because they didn’t interfere with a person’s ability to reproduce, which would have been unnatural and immoral”.

To put in another way, the government saw an increase in overpopulation followed by people enjoying the pleasure of sex, and deemed this to be an immoral course of life. Another key point is that people who understand science believe that people should quit reproducing so much, whereas people who accept morals say that society would face downfall if people use sex for pleasure. Essentially, foolish moralists, who conclude that the world cannot afford people having sex, are the ones that enforce the birth control pills so much. This leads to citizens questioning their own sexuality because unnatural morals and new principles of life are carrying out into their lives, which causes people to have less appreciation of their sexuality. Therefore, the government’s oppressive jurisdiction proves how society begins to doubt sexuality and morals.

In Vonnegut’s story, Welcome to the Monkey House, he yet again uses the style of satire to warn people of tyrannical government control. Vonnegut brings to light how science, to such a degree, goes hand and hand with human morals. Using the concept of foolish moralists playing a part on deciding on what is good for the society, it is ironic that Vonnegut claims science and morals go hand in hand, because one might view this as the least thing they expect to go together, yet, it can become an actual reality. Furthermore, Vonnegut’s comical developments of insanities today turn into an imagined futuristic society, and give his audience something to laugh and fear about. As the government involves science in controlling the population, it may seem like it is for the benefit of human morals, but it is the very thing that challenges them. With this, characters like Billy the Poet, rebel in opposition to government control, which shows how mixing science and human morals does not work in creating a substantial nation. The last way that denounces the government’s control over a nation is with the theme of forced equality in his story, Harrison Bergeron. In this story, the crucial conflict engages mandatory equality in society as everyone is completely equal. This is due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments in the Constitution and the surveillance of agents who work under the Handicapper General. In this futuristic time, people wear physical handicaps that lower them to a double standard, because of their high intelligence levels. Moreover, in Harrison Bergeron “the individual is reduced to a common norm enforced by violence and through the threat of violence”. At the climax of the story, Harrison presents his individuality by taking off his handicaps, and the Handicapper General kills him, which makes it threatening to embrace individuality. This portrayal of equality through social control turns into a nightmare, because anything that does not involve living a boring life, will get you killed for disobeying the Handicapper General and ultimately the government.

Overall, the Handicapper’s authority, of forced equality over the population through intimidation, leads to individuality being taken away. Uniquely, Vonnegut’s attack on government authority of forced equality, and the conflict of the handicaps have a great effect on the characters. Vonnegut claims that as George’s handicap radio sits in his ear, “the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains”. However, on the other hand, George’s wife, Hazel, does not wear a handicap at all because she is not above average like everyone else. The motivation for the government is to choose anyone who is the slightest bit above average from everyone else and give them physical and mental handicaps to reduce them to one level. Since Hazel does not wear a handicap, this counters the purpose of the three Amendments compelled on the population to make everyone equal. Also, if people find out that certain people do not wear their handicaps, this can cause rebellion against the government. Vonnegut’s story, Harrison Bergeron, exhibits his style of satire to predict people’s actions under unjust government control. As stated before, rebellion can occur “the minute people start cheating on laws”. George specifically states that if he tries to reduce the weight of his handicaps, he can inspire others to do the same, which would go make things go back to a time where everyone competes against each other. In addition, the purpose of Harrison Bergeron is that “it satirizes an obsession of equalizing”. Truly, the government is so focused on making sure that equality is sanctioned in the world, they forget about the people who can cheat on laws, which would lead to the downfall of the society.

In conclusion, Vonnegut is able to prove that oppressive governments do not succeed effectively by using satire to criticize societal problems such as overpopulation, human nature and reproduction, and forced equality. From the three stories in his collection of Welcome to the Monkey House, much can be learned as it warms people not to let dictators and dictatorial governments rule over them if it takes their personal freedoms away. At a time where many people justified the government’s control, Vonnegut disregarded those opinions and pointed out the faults of the government to caution society of their inevitable future, if they do not stand up to it. It is very important to question the way in which the government rules over people in present time, in order to prevent situations that were addressed in the stories from happening in real life. If anything can be learned from Kurt Vonnegut’s stories in his collection of Welcome to the Monkey House, it’s that people should protect their freedoms from being taken away from a tyrannical government.

Works Cited

1. Leeds, Marc and Peter J. Reed, editors. “Kurt Vonnegut. ” Kurt Vonnegut: Images and Representations, Greenwood Press, 2000, pp. 28-31.
2. Meek, Martha and Reed, Peter J. and Ploeg, Scott Vander and Adcock, Patrick. “Kurt Vonnegut. ” Critical Survey of Short Fiction: American Writers, edited by Charles E. May, Salem, 2012. Salem Online, pp. 1-16.
3. Mowery, Carl. “Overview of ‘Harrison Bergeron’. ” EXPLORING Short Stories, Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context, pp. 1-5, http://link. galegroup. com. Vonnegut, Kurt. “Harrison Bergeron. ” The Story and Its Writer, 5th ed. , 1968. Thematic Guide to Popular Short Stories. Edited by Ann Charters, Patrick A. Smith, 2002, pp. 273-274.
4. Vonnegut, Kurt. “Harrison Bergeron. ” Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Stories by Kurt Vonnegut, Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 1953, pp. 315-331.
5. Vonnegut, Kurt. “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. ” Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Stories by Kurt Vonnegut, Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 1961, pp. 7-14. Vonnegut, Kurt.
6. “Welcome to the Monkey House. ” Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Stories by Kurt Vonnegut, Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 1968, pp. 30-50.
7. Votteler, Thomas, et al, editors. “Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ” Short Story Criticism, vol. 8, Gale Research Inc. , 1991, pp. 423-431.