The Mind of Kurt Vonnegut Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

The Mind of Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut is one of the preeminent writers of the laterhalf of the twentieth century. His works are all windows into hismind, a literary psychoanalysis. He examines him ego as a cog inthe corporate machine in deer in the Works as a writer throughthe look of Kilgore Trout in several works and most importantly,as a prisoner of war in Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut created short stories and novels that dealt withevents in his life. One of the most obvious self examinations isin Deer in the Works. The short story is based on hisexperiences as a publicist at the General Electric ships companyResearch Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. Deer in the Workstakes place over two days in the life of David Potter as hebegins his employment at the Ilium Works of the Federal ApparatusCorporation. He is assigned to cover a deer trapped in a remotecorner of the Works. Potter gets lost in the Works himself andfeels just as tra pped as the deer. He eventually frees the deerand escapes the works to fruit to his newspaper. Vonnegut felttrapped like Potter does, and left General Electric in 1951 towrite full time. Before World War II, Vonnegut was enrolled at CornellUniversity canvass biochemistry. He was surrounded by scientistsand machines and as a result, his first literary works were basedon that influence. Vonneguts early writings were not evaluate asserious, mainstream literature due to their scientific nature. Hewas considered a science fiction writer by literary critics. Thatlabel caused him to be largely ignored. He created the character Kilgore Trout, a science fictionwriter, to... ...hort-term events like that. Dresden was astonishing, but experiences can be astonishing without changing you (Reed 776).Despite these claims to the contrary, the experiences at Dresdenhad always played a large part in his writings. His experiences ha ve always shaped what Kurt Vonnegut haswritten. He said to his brother, Bernard, that he wrote for anaudience of one, his dead sister but he actually wrote for himself.He wrote about his experiences as a prisoner inSlaughterhouse-Five, as a publicist in a major corporation inDeer in the Works, and as a writer through the characterKilgore Trout. Vonnegut examined his thoughts through the eyes ofDavid Potter, Kilgore Trout, and Billy Pilgrim. His works are alldeeply ain windows into the psyche of Kurt Vonnegut.