Kurt Vonneguts Tragic Path to Success - 1128 Words

Kurt Vonnegut, was born on November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana, to American-German parents Kurt Vonnegut (Sr.), and Edith Vonnegut. Vonnegut had an older brother, Bernard and an older sister, Alice. Vonnegut graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in 1940 and went to Cornell University later that fall. Though he majored in chemistry, he was Assistant Managing Editor and Associate Editor of the Cornell newspaper. While at Cornell, Vonnegut enlisted in the United States Army. The Army then transferred him to the Carnegie Institute of Technology and finally the University of Tennessee to study mechanical engineering. On Mothers Day in 1944, while on leave during WWII, he found out that his mother had committed suicide with sleeping pills. Later in 1984, Vonnegut would also attempt suicide by pills and alcohol and fail. On December 14, 1944, Vonnegut would be captured in the Battle of the Bulge by German soldiers. He was held as a prisoner of war in Dresden, a German city with no major industries or military presence. The bombing of Dresden was unexpected and Vonnegut and the other Prisoners of War were the only survivors after they escaped. They waited out the bombing in a meat cellar deep under the house where they were keep. Vonnegut was taken back to the U.S in May 1945 and afterwards married Jane Marie Cox. He studied anthropology, the study of humans, at the University of Chicago, but the department rejected his Masters thesis. According to theShow MoreRelatedWhat is The Meaning of Free Will in Life Essay1571 Words   |  7 Pages Free will is the idea in which individuals can have the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate, and this idea of free will served as a prevalent theme in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut illustrates the absurdity of no free will in Pilgrim’s world through the book’s nonlinear structure and unorganized plot. The novel is constructed as a series of inconsistent flashbacks and future incidents through the eyes of the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. Billy Pilgrim is able