Quest for Purpose in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut Essay -- Works of Kurt

Quest for Purpose in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonneguts personal experiences force him to question the meaningless cruelties and conflicting paradigms in life. As a second times German-American and a witness of Dresdens bombing during World War II, he observes firsthand the pointless destruction of which humans are capable (Dictionary 494). He devotes his whole kit to understanding the chaotic, cruel area he encounters. According to Peter Reed, Vonneguts works feature a ...protagonist in quest of meaning in an absurd world (500). While struggling to understand the disordered universe around them, Vonneguts protagonists attempt to become satisfied individuals by understanding the purpose of human life. As he probes the chaotic nature of the universe, Vonnegut, according to Ernest Ranly, ...seems preoccupied with genuine human questions, about war, peace, technology, human happiness (454). Vonneguts works show an obsessive desire to answer these questions, and he explore s them by narrating quests for order and purpose in human life. According to Stanley Schatt, Vonnegut ...believes passionately in both the importance of the individual and the need for human love and grace (348). Vonneguts beliefs become apparent as the searchers invariably realize Vonneguts truth the universe is too chaotic to understand, so the secret to order in their lives is simply kindness. In Vonneguts novel, Galapagos, the narrator, Leon Trout, attempts to understand humanitys cruelty after witnessing the Vietnam Wars brutality and lack of purpose. As a marine in ...a nearly endless, thankless, horrifying, and, finally, pointless war... (Galapagos 254), Trout struggles to come to terms w... ...nd A news report of the American Novel in the Nineteen-Sixties. Yale, 1973. Rpt. in contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 3. Detroit Gale,1975. Ranly, Ernest W. What Are People For? Commonweal. 7 May 1971, 207-211. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 2. Detroit Gale,1974 . Reed, Peter J. Kurt Vonnegut, jr. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol.2 American Novelists Since World War II. Detroit Gale, 1978. _____. Kurt Vonnegut. American Writers. 1981. Scribners Writers Series. Schatt, Stanley. The World of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in Critique Studies in Modern Fiction. Vol. XII, No. 3, 1971. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 1. Detroit Gale,1973. Vonnegut, Kurt. Galapagos. New York Dell, 1985. _____. Mother Night. New York Dell, 1961. _____. The Sirens of Titan. New York Dell, 1959.