Recall that dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system. What criticism(s) about society does Kurt Vonnegut make in his short story “2BR02B”? The story was originally published in 1962, but your response may assume that it is a contemporary story.
In your comments, please present a clear thesis and include relevant and specific details from the text.
The world in the future sound like very beautiful,"no prison, no slums, no asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars." People are trying to limit down the number of population, "Not many people were born a day any more." And there are weird because people have to volunteer to die, people could live much longer, or maybe they not gonna die, "...volunteered to die." There are many services, and the big government service is FBT (Federal Bureau Termination)instead of FBI, that is the service for who want to be a volunteer.
ReplyDeleteOne main criticism Kurt Vonnegut makes about society in his story is the fact that population control (at least the way they do it in this story) can be just as bad, if not, worse than overpopulation. In the story it says, "This child of yours-- whichever one you decide to keep, Mr. Wehling, he or she is going to live on a happy, roomy, clean, rich planet, thanks to population control." This man in the story makes it seem as if in their society, in the future, everything will be perfect. But as Vonnegut shows in the reading and what Mr. Wehling in the story realizes, is that its really not that perfect after all.
ReplyDeleteVonnegut is very clear and to the point about what he wanted to talk about in the title. He references the famous line from Hamlet, "To be or not to be." In Shakespearean it means to live or not to live. That is the case, you have an option of living or not - in some ways that is good people can live forever. In exchange if you bore multiple children at once people have to make sacrifices in order to allow them to live. In general he criticizes the idea of euthanasia as a solution to population control.
ReplyDeleteOne mayor criticism that Vonnegut makes of society is that we think to much about creating a utopian society, this is why in the begging of the short story he states, "Everything was swell...all diseases were conquered. So was old age...etc." Vonnegut is saying over thinking about such a perfect world only creates more problems today because when we look back at our-selves we are not satisfied of what we see and want to take down the reflection in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteIn his short story "2BR02B", Kurt Vonnegut criticizes the way most people in society want to live forever. He makes it seem like the cure for old age brought on a perfect society by describing in the beginning of the story how "Everything was perfectly swell" but we learn by the end how grim things would really be if "All diseases were conquered and so was old age" like in the story. Kurt Vonnegut's story makes it clear that we all die for a reason and that we should not seek out that fountain of youth we all long for. In "2BR02B" the population was controlled and in order for someone new to be born someone else would have to volunteer to die in order to keep the population at a constant number. If we all lived in a world where we had to wait for someone to get bored of living in order to be born then not that many people would ever get a chance at life. Kurt Vonnegut's criticism of society is that we should not fear death because death itself is actually making room for new life.
ReplyDeleteThe author of "2BR02B", Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., pokes fun at society by making criticisms through the story that all have to do with the imperfections of our society today. In the beginning of the story, he starts off by saying "everything was perfectly swell", no prisons, no disease, old age is a thing of the past, and death of course, was left to volunteers. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., brings attention to these problems as if to say be more grateful that we have them. Another example of this is when the triplets of Mr. Wehling are being born, we find out that in order for him to keep all three, he has to find three volunteers to die. In today's society, people can have as many children as they want; Even painting is being controlled in Kurt Vonnegut's future. In my opinion, the author is trying to get us to appreciate everything a little bit more.
ReplyDeleteIn the story 2BR02B kurt Vonnegut criticizes about perfection. He makes a little comment in his story statinh "everything was perfectly swell" but as the story continues nothing is perfect.The population was under controlled.Basically for someone new to be born someone else would have to volunteer to die in order to keep the population at a reasonable number . He sees life an easy way out by changing things to something he thinks is "perfect"
ReplyDeleteVonnegut was origninally living in the baby boomer erea of American history, one where the veterens of World War 2 have all borne children following the end of the Great Depression and America was starting to get crowded. his argument then is still valid today, the world population has to be checked in order to sustain it in the coming years. In the story this was tken into extremes where the birth rate continued to increase while world resources dwindled so much that the quality of life for everybody was pretty terrible. The doctor referenced this phenomenon in his argument with Wehling over the triplets. I don't think the world would come to this point where governments have to physically kill someone for every birth, but you never know.
ReplyDeleteVonegut's story 2BRO2B refers to Hitlers Rule in the 1930.. This is basically a criticism of communism and Voneguts idea if Hitler were to still be in power
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