Eng 122
A Marxist Approach to “2BR02B”
Kurt Vonnegurt JR’s story “2BR02B” critiques how America os at the point of being over populated and the only possible solution to it is population control. The author implies that a human being is just an object that can be bought by another human being.
Patiently waiting in Chicago Lyingin Hospital, Mr. Edward
Wheling, was awaiting the arrival of his triplets. As the doctor and the hostess of the gas chamber were having a conversation, the narrator says “The law said that no newborn child could survive unless the parents of the child could find someone who would volunteer to die” (Vonnegurt 5) Implying that a human life is an object that can just be tossed away or easily bought.
Also, it is an example of the “haves and haves not” because the adults are “haves” because they obviously have a life which the newborns might not have. As Dr. Hitz is talking to Mr. Wheling,
Dr. Hitz says “You don’t believe in the population control, Mr.
Wheling?” (Vonnegurt 5) Not everyone has the same belief system.
Although, Dr. Hitz thinks this is a great solution to keep the population under control and keeping the world cleaner. Others don’t agree with someone having to dying just so one can reproduce. Mr. Wheling isn’t the only the person that doesn’t agree with this belief system, the painter also disagrees with it. When the hostess of the gas chamber walks in, he is being very sarcastic with her. He states “You say you don’t know anything about art, and you prove in the next breath that you
know more about it than I do! Of course the sheavecarrier is wrong for the hostess! A snipper, a prunerthat’s more your line.” He was being sarcastic about what they do as if it was a holy thing to do.
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