Kurt Vonnegut

Technology has changed the way people live in many ways. It has impacted the world in both negative and positive ways as it will continue to do so throughout history. The author Kurt Vonnegut uses the influence of technology in many of his short stories. In the short story “Welcome to the Monkey House,” “Harrison Bergeron,” and “EPICAC” there is a common theme of dehumanization from technology/science and authority. Kurt Vonnegut also uses literary elements and techniques that are common in all three of these short stories. Some techniques and elements such as characterization, style, conflict, setting, and or course the theme of his stories. In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Welcome to the Monkey House” technology and authority play a vital role. “Vonnegut never abandons his theme of…science and technology and its social impact on society” (“The Role of Technology in Kurt Vonnegut’s Writing”). The setting of this story is sometime in the future like much of Kurt Vonnegut’s other stories. In the story it says, “So the world government was making a two-pronged attack on overpopulation” (Vonnegut, 30). This is one time in which the government is brought up as a common theme in Vonnegut’s work. Technology plays a role when it comes to the pills that the people in this short story have to take in order to take the pleasure out of sex. In the story it also says, “The pills were so effective that you could blindfold a man who had taken one, tell him to recite the Gettysburg Address, kick him in the balls while he was doing it, and he wouldn’t miss a syllable” (Vonnegut, 31). This shows that these pills mentioned were an advancement in technology, especially in science. These pills were a powerful advancement in science, which is a very common theme in Kurt Vonnegut’s works. This exact advancement in technology grows into a problem one way or another. Kurt Vonnegut “constantly warns of the bleak future due to the advancement of technology” (“The Role of