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Human Mechanics and Divine Engineering:Breakfast of Champions


Affiliations
1 Department of English, University of Jammu, India
     

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American fiction written during and after 1950's resort to formal disruptions and structural experimentation so as to aesthetically capture the life lived under the "ethos of mass society." Humans, in this socio-economic setup, consume and live the values and circumstances as mass produced as any other consumable and marketable commodity. The commodification of human life and living has rendered humans as meaningless specks floating aimlessly on the vistas of an absurd existence, nullifying the very concept of any moral or spiritual Absolutes. God ceased to exist and "human condition" came to be seen to be ironically governed by the principles of mechanization rendering people as machines. It is within this framework that this paper attempts to analyse the thematic essence of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. The author presents contemporary human beings as mere robots in the hands of inscrutable market and global forces, the forces which he ironically calls God. Northrop Frye, a scientific critic of twentieth century believes that 'human' and 'divine' have come to be replaced by 'demonic', and rendered human condition unbearable. Sartre calls it "human condition" that is the creation of Man himself. Vonnegut, under these circumstances, does not fail to see the "spiritual" aspect of human existence.

Keywords

Apocalypse, Machines, American Dream, Absurd, Science-Fiction, Divinity, Human Condition, Cosmic, Demonic.
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  • Human Mechanics and Divine Engineering:Breakfast of Champions

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Authors

Ravinder Singh
Department of English, University of Jammu, India

Abstract


American fiction written during and after 1950's resort to formal disruptions and structural experimentation so as to aesthetically capture the life lived under the "ethos of mass society." Humans, in this socio-economic setup, consume and live the values and circumstances as mass produced as any other consumable and marketable commodity. The commodification of human life and living has rendered humans as meaningless specks floating aimlessly on the vistas of an absurd existence, nullifying the very concept of any moral or spiritual Absolutes. God ceased to exist and "human condition" came to be seen to be ironically governed by the principles of mechanization rendering people as machines. It is within this framework that this paper attempts to analyse the thematic essence of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. The author presents contemporary human beings as mere robots in the hands of inscrutable market and global forces, the forces which he ironically calls God. Northrop Frye, a scientific critic of twentieth century believes that 'human' and 'divine' have come to be replaced by 'demonic', and rendered human condition unbearable. Sartre calls it "human condition" that is the creation of Man himself. Vonnegut, under these circumstances, does not fail to see the "spiritual" aspect of human existence.

Keywords


Apocalypse, Machines, American Dream, Absurd, Science-Fiction, Divinity, Human Condition, Cosmic, Demonic.