A Sentimental Soldier.
Kurt was born in 1922 and raised in an upper middle-class home in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. was a successful architect. Kurt Sr. and his wife, Edith, liked to entertain and travel. Vonnegut’s older siblings, Barnard and Alice, had attended private schools. Due to the onset of the Great Depression and the family's poor financial planning, Kurt attended public school, Shortridge High School, where his writing career began. Kurt’s parents emphasized free-thinking, rationalism and promoted sensitivity to art. Kurt applied these beliefs and attributes in his work as the editor of the school’s daily newspaper, The Echo. It was here that he discovered that he enjoyed writing about real people and events (Schatt,15) and that readers reciprocally enjoyed his writing.
Kurt’s childhood life was a mostly quiet, happy one, with moments of sadness and sentimentality. He inherited both his sense of humor and his deep sense of sadness from his parents. Of his parents, Kurt says, “I’m grateful that I learned from them that organized religion is anti-Christian and that racial prejudices are stupid and cruel. I’m grateful, too, that they were good at making jokes. But I also, learned a bone-deep sadness from them” (Lindquist, 6).
Kurt’s sentimentality may be credited to an early influence from the family's cook, a young black woman named Ida Young, who would read to him from “an anthology of sentimental poetry about love which would not die, about faithful dogs and humble cottages where happiness was, about people growing old, about visits to cemeteries, about babies who died” (Vonnegut, “Wampeters,"xxiii).
Kurt was born in 1922 and raised in an upper middle-class home in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. was a successful architect. Kurt Sr. and his wife, Edith, liked to entertain and travel. Vonnegut’s older siblings, Barnard and Alice, had attended private schools. Due to the onset of the Great Depression and the family's poor financial planning, Kurt attended public school, Shortridge High School, where his writing career began. Kurt’s parents emphasized free-thinking, rationalism and promoted sensitivity to art. Kurt applied these beliefs and attributes in his work as the editor of the school’s daily newspaper, The Echo. It was here that he discovered that he enjoyed writing about real people and events (Schatt,15) and that readers reciprocally enjoyed his writing.
Kurt’s childhood life was a mostly quiet, happy one, with moments of sadness and sentimentality. He inherited both his sense of humor and his deep sense of sadness from his parents. Of his parents, Kurt says, “I’m grateful that I learned from them that organized religion is anti-Christian and that racial prejudices are stupid and cruel. I’m grateful, too, that they were good at making jokes. But I also, learned a bone-deep sadness from them” (Lindquist, 6).
Kurt’s sentimentality may be credited to an early influence from the family's cook, a young black woman named Ida Young, who would read to him from “an anthology of sentimental poetry about love which would not die, about faithful dogs and humble cottages where happiness was, about people growing old, about visits to cemeteries, about babies who died” (Vonnegut, “Wampeters,"xxiii).
“There is almost intolerable sentimentality beneath everything I write.”
(Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in “Wampeters, Foma, and Granfallons”, 1974)
(Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in “Wampeters, Foma, and Granfallons”, 1974)
So how does a sentimental soul find himself a soldier in 1943? War is the obvious answer, but it is not really that simple.
In his senior year of high school, Kurt approached the local newspaper, the Indianapolis Star, to get advice on journalism. He left with a job offer. Had he decided to stay at the Star and attend a college close to home - "Slaughterhouse-Five" would likely have never been written. As it was, Kurt's brother, Barnard, convinced him that the "arts" were a waste of time and that the future belonged to "..scientists, technicians, the practitioners of the practical arts - not daubers in art...scribblers like the kind Kurt Jr. wanted to be" (Shields, 34). Through Barnard's persuasion, Kurt decided to attend Cornell University where he planned to major in chemistry.
Kurt again found himself on staff of the school paper, the Cornell Daily Sun. The draw to the newsroom outweighed his dedication to his classes, and his grades were so drastic that, facing expulsion, in January 1943, he dropped out of Cornell, lost his draft deferment, and decided to enlist rather than wait to be drafted. He already had some military training due to Cornell's requirement that all students enroll as cadets to the Cornell Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC). Originally Kurt did not agree that the U.S. should rush into another war so soon. He believed that "the reasonable response to Hitler...was isolationism" (Shields, 40). But after Pearl Harbor, his isolationist theory dissolved, and he reluctantly agreed that there was, "...clearly a war that had to be fought and there are very few of those in history" (Shields, 48).
Who knows what may have happened if Kurt had pursued his writing career instead of chemistry? If he had enjoyed school and excelled, perhaps his education would have allowed him a safer position than foot soldier. As it was, his failed attempt at Cornell saw Private Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., serial number 12102964, report to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in March 1943. In 1945 he would survive the incendiary bombing of Dresden, German as a prisoner of war sheltered in the meat locker of Slaughterhouse Five. When he returned home, he would never be the same.
In his senior year of high school, Kurt approached the local newspaper, the Indianapolis Star, to get advice on journalism. He left with a job offer. Had he decided to stay at the Star and attend a college close to home - "Slaughterhouse-Five" would likely have never been written. As it was, Kurt's brother, Barnard, convinced him that the "arts" were a waste of time and that the future belonged to "..scientists, technicians, the practitioners of the practical arts - not daubers in art...scribblers like the kind Kurt Jr. wanted to be" (Shields, 34). Through Barnard's persuasion, Kurt decided to attend Cornell University where he planned to major in chemistry.
Kurt again found himself on staff of the school paper, the Cornell Daily Sun. The draw to the newsroom outweighed his dedication to his classes, and his grades were so drastic that, facing expulsion, in January 1943, he dropped out of Cornell, lost his draft deferment, and decided to enlist rather than wait to be drafted. He already had some military training due to Cornell's requirement that all students enroll as cadets to the Cornell Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC). Originally Kurt did not agree that the U.S. should rush into another war so soon. He believed that "the reasonable response to Hitler...was isolationism" (Shields, 40). But after Pearl Harbor, his isolationist theory dissolved, and he reluctantly agreed that there was, "...clearly a war that had to be fought and there are very few of those in history" (Shields, 48).
Who knows what may have happened if Kurt had pursued his writing career instead of chemistry? If he had enjoyed school and excelled, perhaps his education would have allowed him a safer position than foot soldier. As it was, his failed attempt at Cornell saw Private Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., serial number 12102964, report to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in March 1943. In 1945 he would survive the incendiary bombing of Dresden, German as a prisoner of war sheltered in the meat locker of Slaughterhouse Five. When he returned home, he would never be the same.
"Bernie really fucked up my life. If it hadn't have been for him, all the shit that was about to happen to me wouldn't have happened. I enrolled in the sciences at Cornell only as a sop to him, no other reason. Later, I was in a real mess."
(Kurt Vonnegut in a Dec 2007 interview, as quoted by Shields, 35).
(Kurt Vonnegut in a Dec 2007 interview, as quoted by Shields, 35).