2BRO2B

ENG 200: Critical Reading & Writing Literature

In Kurt Vonnegut 2BRO2B, he starts off with the first sentence as “Everything was perfectly swell”. Is anything really perfectly swell? In creating this ideal society, they achieved their version of utopia. No prison, no asylum, no cripples, or even old age. Provides a striking contrast to our reality, not only in the utopia but when he introduces Edward K Wehling as the only man waiting for his wife to give birth. Today we are aware that at least 350,000+ babies are born each day in the world. It’s gut-wrenching foreshadowing that Vonnegut provides. Audiences are left to wonder how they were able to get the number so low. Already setting the stage to what is to come. He illustrates to us a society in which they have found the cure to aging, death, and overpopulation. For every person born, one person must die.

Vonnegut conveys the character’s guilt over having triplets through his position in the waiting room. Head in his hands. A common body language is shown in individuals during stressful situations. We can imagine his anxiety levels, as he is going to make a forcible decision regarding his children. We later find out that he is planning to offer up his grandfather in order to bring one of his children into the world, but is struggling to find the other two recipients.

Adding on to the character weighting anxiety, he notices a man painting a mural. The mural symbolizes the government’s ideals with a family in all while tending to the lawn. Transitioning over to the men and women in purple uniforms raking the leaves, pulling out the weeds, and cutting down plants. The purple uniform individuals are weeding out the sick and elderly in hopes of a new clean lawn, for the next generation to come. Alluding to the fact that if society follows blindly with their philosophy, their society can prosper like the formal garden. Vonnegut provides a juxtaposition when an orderly enters singing a song welcoming death after a rejection from a woman. The Orderly gleefully sang that he will willingly go to the girl in purple, offering life for a life. Illustrating that sacrificing your life for another is the highest honor, volunteering to be the next. Logically, in nature, we know that all life that is created must be destroyed. Defying the laws of nature is bound to have drastic consequences, yet Dr. Benjamin Hitz believes he’s above life and death. Dr. Hitz existentialist ideals of creating a method to what he believes are the madness of life.

The first voice of reason we are introduced to is the painter of the mural. From showing judgment to the mural he is painting, he tells the orderly that the dropcloth is a better depiction of life rather than the mural itself. The dropcloth symbolized the somber messy ins and outs of our existence. He considers that to be more honest than the mural, as the mural is a constructed reality from the prominent existentialism of the utopic society. Dr. Hitz philosophy is one life for another. Using Hamlet’s infamous quote, “to be or not to be”, as his justification for this existentialism. Believing that in death we would be preferable to the life they currently live. He tells the father-to-be that in the early 2000s, there was not even enough water to feed the population and that in death we are serving a larger purpose. With the fearful uncertainty of what lies after death, Dr. Hitz gave it a much larger purpose providing for generations to come. He even refers to the gas chambers as “Ethical Suicide Studios”, without showing remorse or sorrow for the lost souls. Truly believing that he is creating a better society, the disillusionment is shown through the father-to-be Mr. Wehling. When Mr. Wehling pulls out his revolver and shoots Dr. Hitz, Lenora, and himself, he is still following Dr. Hitz philosophy of providing a larger sacrifice for his future children. The irony being Dr. Hitz and Lenora, who was part of the institution enforcing the law, were the next victims of the unfortunate philosophy.

The painter, already questioning the hypocrisy of the so-called utopia, sees that there is no end to the madness. Creating a utopia is impossible, there is a cost to the perfect society. The paradox of “to be or not to be”, alluding from the Shakelperan play Hamlet, is life and death. Whether we survive a greater purpose in death than we do in life is the existentialism Dr. Hitz conveys. The irony being that in the end, it was the infamous Dr. Hitz who was the next to enter the Happy Hooligan. The karmic intervention of messing with the laws of nature.

We can connect Dr. Hitz ideology wtih Karl Marx’s marxists ideals. The two both believe that their system, which they enacted on the people without say, as it controls the beliefs of the population. The belief is that controlling the narrative can lead to peace, but actually is creating class struggles. Using reflectionism, referring to the text to solidify the class structure in society, we were able to notice the ruling factor as Dr. Hitz’s dominion over the population. Classifying those who work in the organization in the purple uniform as the bourgeoisie, while those who are making the sacrifices are the proletariat. As Dr. Hitz believes that “[Those who] control production have a power base, they have many ways to ensure that they will maintain their position. They can manipulate politics, government, education, the arts and entertainment, news media – all aspects of the culture – to the end” (Dobie pg 89). His reach can spread to even those who share doubt of the institution they have built. For instance, the painter who was originally cynical of the notion of assistance suicide ended up calling the number himself. The psychological dread society must feel, as an endless and no-hope scenario.