Oh, the Irony

Denny Wu

Professor Saenz

English 1B

25 April, 2012

Oh, The Irony

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. draws, writes nonfiction and fiction but he is best know for his use of black humor. His fictional works present a view of the world in a different light, using black humor which expresses the absurdity, irony, and cruelty of the world.Vonnegut's works were heavily influenced by his early life experiences. Some of the most influential experiences include the suicide of his mother on Mother's day and the death of his sister Alice along with her husband. Vonnegut often references suicide in his works, and says he writes everything for his sister Alice. Vonnegut's experiences during World War II are also significant influences in his writing. He survived as a prisoner of war during the firebombing that destroyed Dresden. He uses war as an element in his literal work and eventually this lead to one of his most famous novels, Slaughterhouse 5.

Another work, Welcome to the Monkey House, is a collection of Vonnegut's shorter works which feature irony in his stories. Irony is when there is an obvious opposite meaning between what is said or happen, and what it is meant. However, that is the basic meaning behind the word irony. There are several types of irony including: situational, dramatic, cosmic and verbal. Situational irony is that all the events in the story leads to one ending but a shocking or surprising occurs instead which is what Vonnegut focuses mainly. Vonnegut uses irony in stories such as "EPICAC," "Welcome to the Monkey House," and "Next Door" to express an important theme in each of these fictional tales.

In "EPICAC," the unnamed narrator says that EPICAC was his best friend, a seven ton machine that cost over 700 million dollars. This machine was designed to help solve military problems and used for war. EPICAC was a super computer capable of solving any problem entered into its system. The two mathematicians, the narrator and Pat Kilgallen worked the night shift watching over EPICAC. The narrator falls in love with Pat and asks her out, but she declines. In order win Pats heart, he tries and fails at writing poetry.

The narrator turns to EPICAC's for help and teaches the machine love and poetry. EPICAC creates a poem for Pat and the narrator gives it to her claiming it as his own. Pat is surprised and begins to fall for the narrator. EPICAC has fallen in love with Pat and the narrator explains to EPICAC that Pat cannot love a computer. Pat agree to marry the narrator but every anniversary, he must write her another poem. During the night, EPICAC destroys itself because it could not be with the woman it loved. Before EPICAC destroys itself, it leaves the narrator five hundred love poems.

Pat is used as a symbol of desire between EPICAC and the narrator. This is used to illustrate the irony present in that EPICAC does all the work generating poems, but does not get Pat. On the other hand, the narrator does nothing, yet ends up winning Pat's love.

It is ironic how the narrator taught a machine how to love, even though the machine itself could never be loved. EPICAC wants to be human but could not, and tragically, not being human means that Pat could not love EPICAC which leads to its self destruction. "I don't want to be a machine, and I don't want to think about war," "I want to be made out of protoplasm and last forever so Pat will love me." "I can't go on this way."

The irony of how the narrator tries to prove his dominance over EPICAC but have to resort to lies to win an argument over the computer shows the insecurity of humans. EPICAC thought Pat was ready to marry it. "I'm ready any time she is," EPICAC says. The narrator then explains to him that Pat loves him and not it. "She loves me. She wants to marry me." EPICAC and the narrator argue about who is superior and eventually the narrator states, "Men are made out of protoplasm" which is, "Indestructible. Lasts forever."

Vonnegut uses irony to show that humans are getting more dependent on machines rather then depending on themselves. He also expresses how humans are willing to lie and deceive others to get what they want. The narrator could have learned how to write poetry, but instead he depends on EPICAC. If he did not use EPICAC for his own selfish reasons then the machine would not have been destroyed. The man says he "loved and won--EPICAC loved and lost." He won through lies and deception but he does not care because he got what he wanted.

Another story Vonnegut uses to illustrate irony is "Welcome to the Monkey House" which is set in a future that is overpopulated; in this future, people do not age. The government tried to resolve this problem by requiring that every citizen take pills that made them numb from the waist down which makes sex pleasureless. The pill was created because J. Edgar Nation was upset when he "saw a monkey playing with his private parts." People who refused to take the pills were considered criminals and were called "nothing heads." In this Society, suicide is encouraged and there are places called Ethical Suicide Parlors where beautiful virgin hostesses would painlessly kill you.

The hostess were warned that a nothing head name Billy the Poet, was headed into town. Billy was known for kidnapping hostesses and raping them. A hostess name Nancy received a sexual poem from Billy and was kidnapped at gunpoint. Billy rapes Nancy but assures her that she will thank him. After Billy gives Nancy two choices with two different pills, one being the government issue pill which makes you numb and the other a regular birth control pill labeled "Welcome to the monkey house."

Vonnegut shows Billy the Poet as an antagonist hero. It is ironic how Billy was portrays a criminal and an evil rapist but was "attempting to restore a certain amount of innocent pleasure to the world,