The Theme of Dehumanization in Breakfast of Champions Essay

The Theme of Dehumanization in Breakfast of Champions Dear Sir, poor sir, brave sir: You are an experiment by the Creator of the Universe. (Vonnegut 259) Imagine if this was addressed to you. What an awful feeling of betrayal and loneliness you would no doubt get. But what if next you heard this? You are the only creature in the entire Universe who has free will. You are the only one who has to figure out what to do next-and why. Everybody else is a robot, a machine. (Vonnegut 259) Surely you would feel like your entire existence was a big joke, one at your expense. You would feel desensitized, remote, and detached from all human feeling. You would be a poor victim, someone taken hold of by the cold grasp of dehumanization. The†¦show more content†¦This is where Kilgore Trout and Dwayne Hoover are destined to meet. The story is set in New York around 1973. It follows Trouts journey from Cohoes to Midland City, and Hoovers dysfunctional daily routine while Trout is doing so. Trout makes his way by getting a ride with a truck dri ver and during the ride, as well as the whole trip, his mind wanders to fanciful stories of science fiction. Destiny, as it were, brings Trout and Hoover together near the end of the book. This is where Trout turns Hoover into a homicidal maniac. There are a few motifs that Vonnegut uses to drive in the theme of dehumanization in his book. Sex is one of the most apparent motifs used. It is also one of the most sacred things we have as humans. We use it for recreation1 and we also use it to recreate. Vonnegut uses our sexual urges to tear us apart and make us seem mechanical and routine. He reduces us to nothing less than a fucking machine. (Vonnegut 280) Kilgore Trouts literature for example, is filler for pornographic books and magazines. His works of art are featured in publications, which advertise Wide Open Beavers Inside. (Vonnegut 22) It fills such a need, this machine, says Trout of a film projector in an adult theater, and its so easy to operate. (Vonnegut 69) Another motif that is usedShow MoreRelatedBreakfast Of Champions Or Goodbye Blue Friday970 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"Breakfast of Champions† or â€Å"Goodbye Blue Monday† is the seventh novel of Kurt Vonnegut’s that he wrote it in 1972, as he himself said this is for his very own fiftieth birthday. It is Vonnegut s own parody of himself and his works on how his mind views things as well. In this dark comedy the first person report forms and describes the man who   has been in prison three times in and out of the old prison as a inmate and confronted with the great depression and World War II, the Korean War, McCarthyism