Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - Donald E. Morse: 'Why Not You?": Kurt Vonncgufs Debt to The Book of Job

DONALD E. MORSE "WHY NOT YOU?" KURT VONNEGUT'S DEBT TO THE BOOK OF JOB "And I alone am escaped to tell you." The Messenger to Job For many

—perhaps, for most

—of Kurt Vonnegut's readers, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) remains his finest work

—an impressive achievement whether looked at as a human document or as a work of art. Although many critics have discussed the novel, its themes, debts to other writers, reliance on personal experience, and so forth, no one has yet discussed Vonnegut's considerable debt to the Book of Job. Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five looking back on the Second World War from the vantage point of twenty to twenty-five years later. Unlike Joseph Heller who wrote his equally well-known Catch-22 (1961) under similar circumstances, Vonnegut criticizes the moral confusion occasioned by this or any war's brutal, excessive destruction done in the name of goodness, justice, and Mom's apple pie rather than focusing on the utter cynicism and greed summarized in Heller's often repeated pejorative phrase "everyone cashing in." In contrast, Vonnegut ironically admits that "one way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed [in Dresden]. Some business I'm in."

1 Like Lofs wife, whom he applauds for daring to witness the firey destruction of Sodom and Gomorah at the price 1 Palm Sunday (New York: Dell Publishing, 1981), p. 302. 75