Vonnegut as a "Bug in Amber"
Connection of Fiction and Autobiography in the Works of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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CHAPTER II: Divinity
The other literary character this essay is going to
analyse is Divinity: that is, God, or gods. Divinity can be
described a similar manner as Humanity. This will be much
easier, since it will not be necessary to generalize that
much. The problem might be that though speaking about God,
Vonnegut seems to be avoiding talking about Him openly.
Ranly notes that
Vonnegut seldom addresses the question of God
directly. Through his style, his humor, and
especially through the form of science (and
religious) fiction Vonnegut is able to sidestep
every direct confrontation with the question of
God. The question, however, seems to haunt him at
every turn. (Ranly:209)
When talking about Divinity, Vonnegut seems, in most cases,
to have in mind one "entity", unlike the other character,
Humanity, which had to be described based on numerous human
beings. Of course, there are several exceptions, but these
are not obstacles from creating another literary character
-- Divinity.
This character plays a part in almost all novels by
Kurt Vonnegut and is seen from similar viewpoints. Probably
because Vonnegut comes from society where Christianity is
the major religion, and maybe even because his ex-wife and
his daughter are "born-again Christians" (PSU: 235), he
mostly refers to the 'Christian' God in his books. However,
there are some exceptions when Vonnegut replaces God with
some other 'higher' force (such as Mother Nature in
Galapagos, or Time in Jailbird). These subs titutes,
however, carry the same attributes and usually have the same
qualities as Vonnegut's God.
Divinity as a character cannot be studied separately.
Its character traits can be defined by examining its
relationship with Humanity. Literary theory concerning
physical appearance and environment is not applicable here,
since Vonnegut hardly mentions these aspects at all. His
image of God is, however, quite well described by indirect
indication. There are various hints throughout Vonnegut's
books as to what is God really like, some mentioned by other
literary characters, some stated directly by the narrator of
the story or Vonnegut himself.
Lack of Concern
There is only one quality which could be isolated and
studied independently on the relationship with Humanity: the
lack of concern for anything, indifference and laziness
(something so much differing from the Christian view of God,
who loves and cares for His people, giving Himself as
a sacrifice for their sins etc.). Vonnegut's Divinity
appears not to care about what it has created. This aspect
of Divinity gets even more emphasized when the relationship
with Humanity is brought into consideration. Earlier, in
1959, Vonnegut had developed the idea of God's indifference
more in detail in his novel Sirens of Titan, which dealt,
above all, with Humanity. In the book, Vonnegut presents
a new religion: 'The Church of God Utterly Indifferent'. In
this a bit extreme concept he illustrates that God does not
care about anything at all and does not intervene in the
affairs of people at all. Throughout the whole novel, an
outcry can be heard: "Take Care of the People, and God
Almighty Will Take Care of Himself" (TIT:128)
Even though Vonnegut admits, for example in Slapstick,
that God could have designed something like Heaven, or
Paradise for good people to go to after death, the view that
He lacks concern for the human beings is still there. Eliza
Swain in Slapstick communicates with her brother, she being
dead and he alive. She gives Wilbur the description of
Paradise and alludes it to a badly run Turkey Farm
(SLP:179). She says that "Whoever designed this knew nothing
of the human beings" (SLP:179). Vonnegut seems to be asking
whether such a paradise can be considered to be a kind of
reward. Since God is, in his view, indifferent towards
people, one cannot expect Him to be different when it comes
to the afterlife.
Together with indifference, Vonnegut sometimes
mentions laziness of Divinity. A very good example of this
can be found in the novel Jailbird, where the main character
speaks about his wife, Ruth, who had suffered in
a concentration camp during the World War II. "I asked her
once whether she had ever sought the consolations of
religion in the concentration camp. 'No,' she said. 'I knew
God would never come near such a place' (JAI:29). Later,
Ruth gave a toast one Christmas Eve with these words :
'Here's to God Almighty, the laziest man in town' (JAI:30).
Sometimes, it is not only that Vonnegut's Divinity
does not do anything, which shows its indifference. On the
contrary, mostly it is the fact that Divinity does
something, that it acts somehow. A good example would be
Kilgore Trout's dialog with a truck driver in Breakfast of
Champions, comparing Divinity's and Humanity's indifference
toward the planet, nature and life. Trout describes that he
"used to be a conservationist" and that he used to cry about
people causing environmental catastrophe s, but that he has
to laugh about it now.
"I realized," said Trout, "that God wasn't any
conservationist, so for anybody else to be one was
sacrilegious and a waste of time. You ever see one
of His volcanoes or tornadoes or tidal waves?
Anybody ever tell you about the Ice Ages he
arranges for every half-million years? How about
Dutch Elm disease? There?s a nice conservation
measure for you. That's God, not man. Just about
the time we got our rivers cleaned up, he'd
probably have the whole galaxy go up like
a celluloid collar. That's what the Star of
Bethlehem was, you know." (BOC:84-85)
This passage quite well illustrates how Divinity employs its
destructive powers. Slaughterhouse-Five describes this in
the connection with Humanity. In this novel, Vonnegut
mentions the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He sees this
Biblical act of God as an evidence of Divinity's lack of
concern for Humanity (SH5:21-22). He seems to be saying that
Divinity showed its indifference toward people by destroying
them completely instead of saving them, not caring about the
suffering of poor and innocent people that, as Vonnegut
supposes, lived there.
Divinity is seen here as an oppressor saying: "You'll
either do what I command you, or you'll die." This oppressor
does not have in mind the people at all, it only pursues to
satisfy its own ego. It is seen as an evil and cruel ruler
with a rod of iron, crushing everything that does not please
it, everything that disobeys its law.
Other Divinity characters
It would be wrong to conclude, that Vonnegut always
mentions God or something similar to God. The relationship
between Divinity and Humanity has been illustrated on
previous pages, but there seem to be several "divine"
characters that could be substituted for Divinity. In all
cases, they are somehow superior to human beings, no matter
what names they might be given or which characteristics they
might be attributed. Sometimes it seems that the higher
force is just nature or chance, for example. These things,
however, could not be studied as a character Divinity,
because they are not alive. Still, it can be supposed that
Vonnegut has an entity in mind, not just some abstract thing
as coincidence or accident.
Years
In Jailbird, Vonnegut presents two kind of characters.
They are not people versus God, they are people and years.
In the beginning of the novel, the main character, Starbuck,
says that years are responsible:
Nineteen-hundred and Thirteen gave me the gift of
life. Nineteen-hundred and Twenty-nine wrecked the
American economy. Nineteen-hundred and Thirty-one
sent me to Harward... (JAI:1)
Vonnegut even capitalizes the names of the years in order to
show that "they were proper names" (JAI:2). It seems as
though the years served the function that is played by God
in the other novels: something that makes people do things,
something that is to blame instead of people. Starbuck does
not blame people for the collapse of the American economy,
he blames the year 1929. He does not blame people for firing
him from the government, he blames the year 1953 (JAI:2).
Timequake
The problem of free will in Timequake is not
apparently caused by God or any intelligent being. It is
a timequake, a natural catastrophe which happens just as an
earthquake might happen: all of a sudden, with no-one's
intention. Therefore, the reader would not have to suspect
Divinity to be behind the scene. Vonnegut says that the
timequake was mean. It is definitely a human quality or
maybe "divine" quality, and not of something abstract,
something not living. "If it isn't a timequake draggin g us
through knothole after knothole, it's something else just as
mean and powerful" (TQK:46). This may be understood in such
a way that, even though Vonnegut is really speaking about
a natural disaster, there is Divinity acting the same way as
timequake. It is Divinity, as can be concluded, who drags us
through life.
Big brains
In Galapagos, the cause of everything an individual
does is the oversized human brain. It is what leads them
into doing terrible, abominable things, it is something they
cannot help obeying. According to what has been discussed in
this section so far, the cause of everything Humanity does
seems to be Divinity. Therefore, Divinity appears to be the
'oversized brain' of Humanity. If one compares the relation
of an individual and their brain to the relation of Humanity
and Divinity in Vonnegut's n ovels, one can see an almost
perfect match. Galapagos, which, as an exception, does not
blame God for anything, can now be seen as a parable of the
relation between people and God, actually putting even more
blame on Divinity than any other novel.
Also in Timequake Vonnegut says something about human
brains and minds that can prove that the conclusion about
the equation of big brains and Divinity is correct. In one
of Kilgore Trout's stories, "Dog's Breakfast", the main
character suspects that smart people really have "little
radio receivers in their heads" and are "getting their
bright ideas from somewhere else" (TQK:91).
Trout himself seemed convicted that there was
a great big computer somewhere, which, by means of
radio, had told Pythagoras about right triangles,
and Newton about gravity, and Darwin about
evolution, and Pasteur about germs, and Einstein
about relativity, and so on and on. (TQK:91)
Trout also expresses the opinion that this computer, "while
pretending to help us, may actually be trying to kill us
dummies with too much to think about" (TQK:91). This is
actually realised in Galapagos, where humanity becomes
extinct thanks to their big brains.
Vonnegut as God
In Breakfast of Champions, Vonnegut himself plays the
part of Divinity. He assumes a role that seems to illustrate
the role of Divinity in his other books. He is the creator
of the amber, the storyline of the novel. He is the creator
of all the characters. He decides on everything that the
characters are going to do next. He is the puppet-master
leading his puppets. The characters are utterly under his
control. The only character that seems to realize this is
Kilgore Trout, who says to his parakeet: "the way things are
going, all I can think of is that I'm a character in a book
by somebody who wants to write about somebody who suffers
all the time" (BOC:241).
The parallel between this and other Vonnegut's novels
(and Vonnegut's life itself) can be easily seen. Humanity is
suffering and it feels like a character under the hand of
somebody who likes to write about suffering.
The Divine Father
The relationship between father and son has been
described in the section on Family. One of the most often
mentioned relations between father and son is that of an
unsuccessful father producing an unsuccesful son, such as
Kilgore and Leon Trout, or Rudy Waltz and his father. This
can be used as an analogy for Vonegut's idea of God or
Divinity.
In some religions, such as Judaism or Christianity,
"the believers and their Divinity formed a social, political
and religious unit, that is family, whose father was, in
a purely physical sense, the Divinity." (Novotny:571,
transl.) Jesus Christ also taught believers to know God as
their father. (Novotny:571, Matthew 7,9). Vonnegut, though
never stating it directly in his books, seems to make an
analogy between the physical and human father and son and
the Divine Father and Son -- that is Divi nity and Humanity.
Showing Divinity as an uncaring, indifferent, cruel
entity, he may suggest that it is an apology for Humanity's
being also uncaring and indifferent and cruel. Vonnegut
shows Humanity as a complete failure. However, when
examining the character of Divinity, it seems that it, as
the possible father is a failure as well, having failed in
creating people, having failed in giving them a purpose of
life etc.
Religion
So far, the relationship of Divinity towards Humanity
has been described without any reference to the way people
treat Divinity, without mentioning faith and worship. To
form a picture that is more complete, it is necessary to
explore not only the direction of the relationship of God to
people, but also the opposite one: people to God. When there
is a kind of relationship of Humanity towards Divinity, it
is possible to call it "religion". While Vonnegut's earlier
stories do not mention this is sue at all, in the later
novels there are many and frequent references to religion.
Vonnegut seems to deplore traditional religions,
especially Christianity. Many remarks on the issue of
religion can be found throughout his books. However, he does
not only criticize religion and believers, but creates
religions of his own. Humanity in Vonnegut's works seems to
have almost the same attitude towards Divinity. Humanity
mostly criticises God or Divinity, such as Kilgore Trout,
for example, in his speech about God a non-conservationist
(BOC:84-85), or Eliza Swain criticizing heave n and its
maker (SLP:179), or Ruth saying that God was the laziest
person in town (JAI:30), or a character in Timequake,
Prince, who gets contemptuous of God (TQK:56) or Bokonon
saying that "God never wrote a good play in His Life"
(CAT:161). The whole Church of God the Utterly Indifferent
(TIT) describes quite effectively this view, this rejection
of God, or criticism of God.
Vonnegut himself calls religion "make-believe"
(TQK:105) and seems to identify with his sister's opinion:
"If there is a god, he sure hates people" (TQK:56). He also
speaks about his "finding religious people comical", calling
what they believe an "arbitrary, clearly invented
balderdash" (PSU:215).
Summing Up Divinity
This section has shown that Divinity is the cause of
everything Humanity does. Sometimes it is just hidden behind
some minor aspects (e.g. fate, faulty construction of human
bodies, oversize brains, people's reaction to chemicals, sex
drive etc.) and sometimes directly pointed out as the Master
Puppeteer leading its puppets. This part of the essay has
shown that Divinity is the highest force, the designer of
the 'amber', the author of the tragedies of human lives, the
Big Brain of Humanity. Hu manity seems not to be given any
free will, anything that would make its life worth living.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I: Humanity
Characteristics of Humanity
Playthings, puppets
Human life and its value
Bugs in Amber
CHAPTER II: Divinity
Characteristics of Divinity
Other Divinity characters
The Divine Father
Religion
CHAPTER III: Hero vs Villain
Hero vs. Villain
Unsuccessful Ways Out
Successful Ways Out
Humanity vs. Divinity
On meaning and purpose of life
CHAPTER IV: Vonnegut as the Hero
Fiction and Autobiography merged
Vonnegutīs amber
Vonnegutīs ways out
CONCLUSION
List of Abbreviations Used
Bibliography
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Last modified: Apr 2, 1998