Happy Birthday, 1951
Topic Proposal
Kurt Vonnegut "Happy Birthday, 1951"
Kurt Vonnegut wrote many short stories on war and peace, a series of which was compiled into "Armageddon In Retrospect," by his son Mark Vonnegut. The short "Happy Birthday, 1951" portrays the aftermath of cultural devastation and its effects on the generation raised amidst such upheaval. A young boy and an old man struggle for survival surrounded by a city in rubble. (Let's suppose the city is Dresden, Kurt Vonnegut loved to write about the bombing of the cultural capitol.) The old man remembers that before the war people celebrated birthdays and turns to the boy asking when he'd like to celebrate his birthday. The boy says tomorrow, the old man thinks quickly of simple ways to celebrate. Recalling a pair of wayward wheels a little ways away, the old man decides to build a cart as a present. After realizing the boy hasn't had a birthday in seven years, the reader should feel a strong pull on their heartstrings in Vonnegut's appeal to pathos. The boy is without a birthday, name, or heritage; his papers lost seven years ago. Tomorrow arrives. The old man presents the boy with the cart and lightly jokes that it is "a truck," the boy promptly imagines his cart into a tank. The old man says "leave the tank behind for a day, where we're going there is no place for tanks." He leads the boy out of the city, to the country, a place destruction hasn't reached. The boy enjoys the sunshine and nature. The old man falls asleep and wakes to find the boy far from sight. He wanders around calling for the boy to no avail. Finally as the sun sets, the boy startles the man by pointing his finger in the form of a gun and crying "bang, bang!!" The gift of peaceful nature has failed to hit home within the child. This moment really draws me in because of true peace of life is barely recognizable to a child reared amongst such devastation. This depreciation of nature existed in 1951 and continues to exist in a different form.
Kurt Vonnegut "Happy Birthday, 1951"
Kurt Vonnegut wrote many short stories on war and peace, a series of which was compiled into "Armageddon In Retrospect," by his son Mark Vonnegut. The short "Happy Birthday, 1951" portrays the aftermath of cultural devastation and its effects on the generation raised amidst such upheaval. A young boy and an old man struggle for survival surrounded by a city in rubble. (Let's suppose the city is Dresden, Kurt Vonnegut loved to write about the bombing of the cultural capitol.) The old man remembers that before the war people celebrated birthdays and turns to the boy asking when he'd like to celebrate his birthday. The boy says tomorrow, the old man thinks quickly of simple ways to celebrate. Recalling a pair of wayward wheels a little ways away, the old man decides to build a cart as a present. After realizing the boy hasn't had a birthday in seven years, the reader should feel a strong pull on their heartstrings in Vonnegut's appeal to pathos. The boy is without a birthday, name, or heritage; his papers lost seven years ago. Tomorrow arrives. The old man presents the boy with the cart and lightly jokes that it is "a truck," the boy promptly imagines his cart into a tank. The old man says "leave the tank behind for a day, where we're going there is no place for tanks." He leads the boy out of the city, to the country, a place destruction hasn't reached. The boy enjoys the sunshine and nature. The old man falls asleep and wakes to find the boy far from sight. He wanders around calling for the boy to no avail. Finally as the sun sets, the boy startles the man by pointing his finger in the form of a gun and crying "bang, bang!!" The gift of peaceful nature has failed to hit home within the child. This moment really draws me in because of true peace of life is barely recognizable to a child reared amongst such devastation. This depreciation of nature existed in 1951 and continues to exist in a different form.