Deadeye Dick Essay, Research Paper

Steven Neale Per.3Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut is one of today s greatest contemporary authors. Vonnegut writes with a very unique and random style, it is like no other author in the world. Deadeye Dick is a prime example of his original style, like many other books from the pen that brought us Jailbird, Slapstick, and Welcome to the Monkey House, it s a riot of randomness. (Demott) Along with his unique style of writing he also incorporates his own life through the story as he does in many of his other novels by writing about WWII. World War II is a reoccurring theme throughout the story. Vonnegut used these ingredients to create Deadeye Dick. Vonnegut s style makes for an interesting reading of his books. In the very first few lines of Deadeye Dick his unusual style is revealed when it states, I was a wisp of undifferentiated nothingness, and then a little peephole opened quite suddenly. When one is born their peephole is opened and when one dies their peephole shuts and becomes closed. This reference is repeated several times throughout the novel and it is one of his little style elements that make up his stories. As the reader moves on in the book one will take notice that many of the events or people s actions do not make much sense. This is part of Vonnegut s use of randomness. Vonnegut does not write with the idea of logic and reason in his head. For example, in Deadeye Dick The main character s father saves the life of the young Hitler who was a struggling artist at the time, when they are in school together young Rudy Waltz gains his nickname, the title of the book, when he fires a shot from his fathers gun and it accidentally kills a pregnant woman. Also later on a neutron bomb detonates killing almost the entire town and leaving only the machines untouched along with buildings. Not relating to eachother at all, all of these events lead up to Rudy becoming a chef and copartner with his brother in a restaurant in Haiti. Within all of the horrible events that took place there is a great amount of irony introduced. For instance, Rudy is the son of a gun safety specialist, yet he manages to accidentally kill a pregnant woman using his father s rifle. His father even bragged saying; my boys will never have a shooting accident because their respect for weapons has become a part of their nervous systems. There is also an element of irony used because humans created a neutron bomb which when detonated only killed the human leaving machinery and buildings unharmed. The whole story lacks logic, reason and order, nothing Rudy does really fits together. After he is released from being jailed for the murder Rudy decides to earn a degree in pharmacology at Ohio State. Then He works nights at a drugstore and completes a play during that time. His play flops on Broadway and he moves on. Rudy then relocates to Haiti to cook with his brother in a restaurant. There is still confusion and randomness present when a Blizzard kills both of his parents in Ohio and when Rudy is at their grave site, instead of mourning he drifts off and thinks of a recipe for a certain type of cookie. Throughout the book other recipes are giving as well, which is also an example of Vonneguts random writings. Vonnegut s random and causelessness helps present the satirical tone of the books he writes. But Vonnegut lives in a world scrubbed clean of reasons. (Demott)

Another reoccurring example of his style throughout all of his works is his view of humanity, which is shown through the physical appearance of his characters. The physical appearance of most of his human characters is very similar. For example Rudy Waltz, the main character of Deadeye Dick was fat just like very many other characters in his novels. Most people in Vonneguts Books are not only charm free, ugly, short, and fat, but they are also deteriorating by their own will. Many of his characters are described as unwashed, unshaved and having oily hair. Even the environments of the characters are described as being terrible. Many times Vonnegut describes Rudy s house as a sh**box. Not only does he focus on the character s appearances but on what they do. He constantly attacks man made things and this is shown when he tells of the neutron bomb that only ended up killing and harming humans not man made things. Ironically, Vonnegut asks the question in the story whether it matters that all those people died, since all the property is undamaged, has the world lost anything it loved? (34) All of these examples show the overall view that Vonnegut has for humanity. He is saying that Humanity is ugly, dirty, stupid and in a way worthless. He uses irony and a unique style to get off his sarcastic views on war and the ways of humanity. Along with his originality in his novels Kurt Vonnegut was greatly influenced by his involvement in WWII. Vonnegut was involved in a horrifying bombing in Dresden. He was captured and taken to Dresden a useless city during the war, which was firebombed by British and American planes all night long. That night of extreme horror would forever stay inside Vonnegut s mind and inspire him in many of his stories. Even though WWII is not mentioned as often and is not as directly related to the story it is still mentioned with the talk of Hitler. Rudy also mentions how his father supported Hitler and his views on the police and the Third Reich. Indirectly Rudy was involved with Hitler and WWII. The personal life of Vonnegut greatly influenced his ideas about war and inspired him to write about them and recognized as his greatest work, Slaughterhouse-Five reflected his true feelings on the war. Representative paragraph: They never shut up. Year after Year they piled detail upon detail. They do it still. You know what they say now? They say the year is 1982, and that I am Fifty years old. Blah blah blah. (1) This paragraph shows some of Vonnegut s randomness and illogical thoughts in the book. Also it shows his disgust for humanity and his sarcastic tone throughout the book. In conclusion, Deadeye Dick, by Kurt Vonnegut is a great story, which shows the very original style of Vonnegut and his random ideas. There are also many examples of his views on humanity and he incorporates his own personal events into his stories like his involvement in WWII. He is one of the greatest contemporary authors in the world.

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