Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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April 12, 2007

Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dies
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1709B55:A6F02AD83191E160A415E614AAEFAF219574F7DCC14957C0 American novelist
earned recognition for novels such as, 'Breakfast of Champions',
'Cat's Cradle', and 'Slaughterhouse Five' which protested what he felt
were horrors of 20th Century American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., has
died at age 84.  VOA'S Chris Martin prepared this profile.







Kurt Vonnegut Jr. with wife, photographer Jill Krementz (2004 file
photo) Kurt Vonnegut emerged as one of the most influential and
provocative writers in the United States, during the 1960's. His
writing was an ongoing protest against what he felt were the horrors
of the 20th Century. He wrote of an unending sequence of disastrous
wars, the destruction of the environment and the dehumanization of the
individual, in a society dominated by science and technology.

Vonnegut's themes were by no means unique to contemporary literature.
It was rather the way he expressed his protest that made his works so
forceful and popular. Fantasy, science fiction, humor, a keen sense of
the absurd, and despair were the ingredients of his satires. In his
fantastic tales, he would show the frustrations of average people with
their burdens and boredom.

Kurt Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed pessimist. He believed the
egalitarianism of American society was not the result of individuals
realizing their opportunities in a "land of opportunity," but more the
result of a decrease in opportunities. An example is his novel,
"Breakfast of Champions," about a middle-aged American car salesman.
The book's message is that hard work, intelligence, and perseverance
do not guarantee anything in a changing America. Vonnegut believed the
individual was not the controller of his own destiny, but the subject
to many uncertainties.



Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana,
in the Midwestern United States. His schooling at Cornell University
was interrupted when the United States entered World War II. As a
prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, he witnessed the firebombing of
that city. This catastrophe later became the subject of his most
powerful novel, "Slaughterhouse Five."

Kurt Vonnegut became a free-lance (independent) writer in 1950 and,
two years later, published his first novel, "Player Piano." This
futuristic story takes place in a city where the industry has been
fully mechanized. The people of the city - aware they are being phased
out - revolt and destroy all the machinery. They soon realize they
have destroyed the technological devices they depend upon for their
existence. Another of Kurt Vonnegut's well-known works is "Cat's
Cradle," the story of two families - one black, one white - who
struggle to live in an icy, empty environment. Separation and war are
the two themes of his novel "Mother Night."



In his novels, Vonnegut's heroes are unexceptional characters. The
author's popularity can be linked to his use of ordinary people whose
frustrations force them to work together to correct the ills of their
society. He saw personal satisfaction as inconceivable in a fragmented
world. Vonnegut pleaded, in his surreal way, for an end to the
hierarchies of religion, status, money and intelligence that he said
divide people and make them adversaries.

Author Kurt Vonnegut became a hero of his culture, because he
celebrated human vulnerabilities - something we all can understand.
Kurt Vonnegut died Wednesday, at age 84.


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