Bugs In Amber

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.(1922-2007) is an important yet disputed author in the contemporary American literature.Rising to fame with the publication of Slaughterhouse-Five(1969),Vonnegut became a well-known and widely read writer.In some schools,Slaughterhouse-Five has even become one of the compulsory reading materials.Yet after this achievement,in his 40s,Vonnegut came to his crossroad of literary creation.The present thesis focuses on the madness in God Bless You,Mr.Rosewater(1965), Slaughterhouse-Five(1969),and Breakfast of Champions(1973),which were written in Vonnegut's 40s,trying to explore the motivation and purpose of Vonnegut's literary creation during the first decade of fame he has gained after war.The thesis includes five chapters.The first chapter is an introduction of Vonnegut and his novels God Bless You,Mr.Rosewater, Slaughterhouse-Five,and Breakfast of Champions.A general survey of the previous research on madness of the three novels is also included.Chapter two surveys the reasons of Eliot Rosewater's madness in God Bless You,Mr. Rosewater and how his madness acts as a refuge from sanity.The impact of money,of different values father and son holds,compels Eliot to take madness as a cave of his identity.And the inquiry about the social injustice of economic systems has been one of Vonnegut's concerns on both society and his own early profession as a writer.The third part studies Vonnegut's trauma in WWII,definitely a motivation that causes his writing of Billy Pilgrim and Slaughterhouse-Five,in which Billy constantly evades the war machine utilizing the Tralfamadorian whimsy.Until Vonnegut has found some way to achieve an "equilibrium" based on the belief that people can successfully resist becoming appendages to machines,can Billy traps his way out from his haunted memory for the author himself.The machine of words printed as the idea to be planted in readers goes to be the major concern of chapter four,in which Kilgore Trout is viewed as an alter-ego of Vonnegut,who,in his late 40s,comes across his major crises in spiritual evolution.Apparently,Dwayne Hoover's madness in Breakfast of Champions is an alarm to warn Trout of his career—to be a responsible author for the world.So does Vonnegut contemplate his purpose of literary creation.Hence there comes the conclusion as the last chapter of the thesis:the exercise of madness in the novels Vonnegut wrote in his 40s represents the author's plight in his writing career;and madness of the protagonists in these three novels represents his progress of surpassing his past and looking forward to the future.By analyzing madness of these three novels,the thesis proves that taking the responsibility as a writer,Vonnegut introspects his work via his characters' madness,which,to some extent,shows Vonnegut's humanism.