Consequences Of Art In Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night

Sometimes underestimated
Art is a component of our daily lives and we are so used to it that we rarely take the time to think about how common its presence has become. It can nonetheless be somewhat dangerous, as shown in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Mother Night, since it is used to manipulate people and has serious consequences. This is expressed through the impact that art has on people’s minds, the fact that it is a somewhat destructive passion and the fact that it has tangible consequences.
First off, art can be dangerous because it can easily manipulate people and make them believe pretty much anything by planting doubt and creating images. This idea is present from the very beginning of the novel in the editor’s note. There, it is clearly states that Howard J.
Campbell is a playwright which in the editor’s book is solely a euphemistic term to refer to a professional liar. The latter’s words therefore bestow an atmosphere of doubt upon the veracity of Campbell’s confessions, especially since the protagonist’s words seem to cause a lot of ravages. In fact, his father-in-law, Werner Noth, finally comes to realize that: “You [Campbell] could never have served the enemy as well as you served us,” he said. “I realize that almost all the ideas that I hold now that make me unashamed of anything I may have felt or done as a Nazi, came not from Hitler, not from Goebbels, not from Himmler-but from you” (Vonnegut, 99). It appears that the eloquence of the main character in Mother Night has successfully managed to convince the average Nazi that the cause Germany pursued was just. Moreover, another form of art, drawing, has also been used to contribute to the Nazi cause. Howard J. Campbell’s excess of zeal has pushed him to draw practice targets that were highly praised by Heinrich Himmler. The latter said of these their design: “has improved my marksmanship a hundred percent,” he wrote. “What pure Aryan can look at that target,” he said, “and not shot to kill?” (Vonnegut 154). The protagonist’s drawings have successfully managed to dehumanize the Jews in the Aryan’s eyes. It has removed the remains of guilt they had to kill the Jewish people that were wrongly portrayed as enemies robbing them of their resources. I think that we can safely say that art has an impact on the way we perceive things, for it makes us doubt Campbell’s confessions and has distorted the way the Germans viewed the Jews during this dark period of History.
Second off, art can be an obsessive and somewhat psychologically destructive passion. The most obvious proof is Kraft’s obsession for art that gives him a distorted perception of reality. It even leads him to affirm to Campbell that art itself should be their sole goal in life and that it is the only thing they will be remembered for. It is pretty clear that art governs his life and that he places it above anything else. He seems to think that it can even forgive everything, for in his affidavit he says that Campbell is merely a distraught artist, and that the poor soul therefore should not be accounted responsible for his crimes against humanity. Furthermore, the novel’s main character also produces a very disturbing piece of literature, Memoirs of a Monogamous Casanova, described as being “clinical, obsessed, some say, insane” (Vonnegut, 127). This leads us to think that the protagonist might be placing his art above his mental health. However, what highlights best how obsessive and somewhat destructive art can be is the fact that Howard J. Campbell wrote about himself: “burn his body, but spare this [his art], his heart” (Vonnegut, 124). This demonstrates that to preserve his art, he would sacrifice his carnal envelope to preserve pieces of paper and that he would be willing to give up on all the joys this world holds for art’s sake. The fact that art is Kraft and Campbell’s only motivational force that for Kraft it can excuse the murder of millions of innocent people and that the main character would rather save his work rather than his life show how much damages an obsession for art can be to one’s mental state.
Third off, art has tangible consequences in people’s lives, not only psychological ones.
When Borodovskov, the one who took credit for Campbell’s work, ran out of material to use, he decided to write a satire on the Red Army and was executed because of it. We can see that the fact that art can change people’s opinions by presenting another way to view thing and opening their eyes shows that it has psychological effects. These are so feared by dictators that they are willing to assassinate the people that dare to try to change things by using art, something people view as innocent and therefore people are not wary of. Furthermore, young Resi Noth in Vonnegut’s novel falls in love with the protagonist after studying his work. When her identity as a Russian spy is uncovered and that the Americans arrest her, she is willing to commit suicide for this love that was nurtured by Campbell’s art. Finally, at the end of the novel, the main character is determined to commit suicide. The fact that he has previously confessed to “admire form” (Vonnegut, 185) could imply that he is putting up the most vivid of the plays he wrote to instill guilt into the heart of the entire world and especially into the Americans’
hearts.
To conclude, Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night is a brilliant example of the impact art has on people and of the danger that lies behind it. This satire’s goal is to allow us to talk more freely about a very uncomfortable subject many would find a lot easier to forget. However, the only good thing about mistakes is that there are lessons to be learned from each one of them. Unfortunately, it seems that we often choose to close our eyes and that we refuse to acknowledge serious issues. We choose the easy way, but maybe we won’t have any choices left someday.