Robber Barons

Due to the things that have happened in Vonnegut's life, he too has given up on love. He states that the best experiences he has had with love, "could easily be described as 'common decency'" (Vonnegut, 2). He simply treats someone well for awhile, and they treat him well in turn. "Love need not have had anything to do with it" (Vonnegut, Slapstick 2). After another thirteen years, his father, Kurt Vonnegut Sr., died. Up until this point, Vonnegut had written under the name, "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." After his father's death, "in an act of Freudian cannibalism, I dropped the 'Jr.' from my name" (Vonnegut, 22). He became separated from his father, and published all of his subsequent works under simply, "Kurt Vonnegut." Paralleling Vonnegut's dysfunctional relationship with and eventual loss of his father, Vonnegut's works are often filled with characters who have broken relationships with their fathers (Schatt 108). Dwayne Hoover of Breakfast of Champions is just one example. His son, Bunny, is the "town gay" and so Dwayne and Bunny's relationship has deteriorated to the point where they rarely speak to each other. "Bunny Hoover, Dwayne's homosexual son, was dressing for work now. Very soon, Bunny Hoover would be seriously injured by Dwayne" (176). Vonnegut lost another important family member when his first wife died. He has become totally separated from her. He never mentions her by name. Any time he mentions her, he refers to her by saying, "my first wife." He filled the void left by her when he married Jill Kremetz. Dr. Wilbur Daffodil Swain, the main character of Slapstick, has a wife who also leaves him during a difficult time in his life. His wife didn't die; however, parallels can be drawn between their relationship and that of Vonnegut's and his first wife's relationship in that both, from the men's points of view, were ended suddenly and beyond their control. Neither man was quite ready for the change.