Grant Block’s Comments (group member since Oct 21, 2016)

Grant Block’s comments from the Arters AP Literature 2016-17 group.

In Vonnegut’s introduction to “Mother Night” he reveals that this is the only story of his whose moral he knows. “We are what we pretend to be.” he says and I am forced to agree with him. Most of his characters are thoroughly detestable, and his diction simple, but within the lines Vonnegut hides subtle ideas. His moral is disguised in between lines and sentences. The enjoyment in reading Mother Night comes not from complex language or characters, there are none. It comes not from a story so grandiose it transports the reader to far away places. My enjoyment came from watching a seemingly simple story evolve into a chilling statement on human moral and a haunting question on justice and what can be justified in times of great despair.
Almost every character in “Mother Night” is a Nazi, ex-Nazi or a neo-Nazi. These characters were not meant to be liked, and it takes a fair amount of time for the reader to understand why they should be routing for the protagonist at all. The atrocities committed by Howard W. Campbell are presented the the reader almost immediately. His justification, the story of his espionage for the Allies does not come until a while later. While hating the main character may not be the best way to start a story, Vonnegut does it intentionally. A large theme is hatred. Vonnegut argues that blindly hating the enemy is ultimately self destructive. Even after Campbell’s actions were were explained, and it was apparent that all the evil he did was for the benefit of the Allies, it was still difficult to feel sorry for him. Nothing he did throughout the story makes him a protagonist to root for. This may be a failing of Vonnegut’s, all thought Vonnegut seemed to realize his protagonist was unforgivable, and eventually condemned him.
The diction was simplistic, almost too simplistic. There were constant jokes, many of which gave a quick laugh before feeling bad for laughing. This was the true genius of the book. It was able to deal with dark subjects, and deliver heavy depressing themes through humour. The humour served to make the themes even more severe. The guilt that came from laughing at such a dark subject matter carried with it the enormity of the theme.

Yeah, it really did look upon Bromden's issues. Until this point I had thought of Bromden as a neutral narrator, but then I had started to see him as he really was. His insanity was an influence on the story, it added to it, it made the events even more meaningful.

What did you think of Bromden's dream about the basement and machinery?

Yeah, his foil is really well developed. I thought the first group meeting and its aftermath really summed him up well. He understood that what was going on was wrong, and he tried to convince Harding. It took a lot of persuasion to force Harding to accept that he was being abused, but his conviction, his determination to convince Harding was a really good introduction to the character.

I notice I haven't talked about McMurphy much in these posts. He perfectly contrasts Ratched's rule. His brazenness, his optimism, his joy, and his determination to break the order provide a near perfect figure to go against the system. I really enjoyed that the others didn't immediately go to his side. They were so conditioned they first chose to side with their oppressors. He had to fight for their loyalty, he had to earn it.

I wonder what the flexible nature of time the narrator experiences means. It is presented as a symptom of his mental problem, but it has a deeper meaning to the story. Is it just meant to show how slowly time appears to move in the ward, or is it something deeper?

I found the small chapter talking about the suicide in the Disturbed Ward chilling. The death was gruesome, and terrifying, but it was utterly inconsequential in the ward. Nobody even noticed that the man had killed himself, and their eventual reaction was apathetic. The apathy mixed with the striking cause of death made for a poignant chapter.

I like the idea of the book that they all report each other in. They are turning against each other. Ratched knows that it is easier to let them keep each other down, than do all of the work herself.

The breaking of the group into categories seems to reflect life, as many aspects of the ward do. People are broken into categories based on ability, and they even discriminate against each other. The society is so ingeniously broken up by Ratched, she doesn't need to watch everyone, they watch each other.

Often I forget that Bromben is not completely sane. While his narration of fog and time distortion is prominent to the story, I find it easy to forget that the narration is skewed.

Nurse Ratched's invisible 'machinery' seems important to the theme of the book. Not only is she controlling everything and everyone with he invisible 'wires', in comparing the mental ward to a big machine, everyone inside is dehumanized, turned from patients to mere cogs.

The narrator is supposedly deaf, but hears everything. He is supposedly mute but is recounting all of the events he has seen to the reader. He is an interesting and symbolic narrator.

The book has a very unique opening line. It sure catches my attention.

Discuss it

Stephen and I are doing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I am on page 193 of 263 in the book Mother Night. As the story progresses, the author's view of his main character's actions is becoming more clear. Like most characters in the story, the author views the protagonist as more of a Nazi than an American spy. A flashback to a conversation the protagonist had with his recruiter right after the war summed it up morbidly well. His recruiter congratulated him, in a brazen manor, on his success in the war, he even said that the protagonist was one of the best spies America had. He then went on to say that the only reason he was successful was because he was such a good Nazi. Even the man who recruited the protagonist to infiltrate the Nazis saw his actions as vile and despicable. He seemed to believe it was the price to be paid to become a successful agent. The protagonist's inseparable ties to man's evil nature is even clearer when he recounts his unwilling 'friendship' with a group of neo-nazis in New York. They look up to him, and help him so he is unwilling to tell them the truth about himself. All of this has just made me feel more sorrow for the protagonist. He is indeed paying for the crimes he committed during the war, but he committed those crimes for the good of his country. However, to help his country win the war and end the killing of millions, he had to betray his country and be complicate in the killing of millions. He is trapped in the middle, and understands what he did, and is completely helpless both from legal and moral sanctuary.

I am on page 88 of 276 in the book Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut's style is straightforward and direct, but manages to be extremely profound. The story so far is in the form of an autobiography, written by the fictional Howard Campbell Jr. an American turned Nazi propagandist in the war. When the story is taking place, he is being held in an Israeli prison on charges of crimes against humanity. His propaganda was vile and high profile, but the reader learns early on that he was in fact an American spy, working his way up in the Nazi party in order to pass information to the Americans. Of course, America can not confirm this to the Israelis, which is how he ended up in his current predicament. Most of the story is told through flashback, and so far, Vonnegut has provided the reader with a morally confusing character. In his time with the Nazis, he sympathized with them, even began to agree with them, and was creating vile, inflammatory propaganda which he knew was responsible for much of the hatred of the time. He was however doing it all to help his country. Vonnegut is asking if a man can sacrifice himself, and everything he stands for to help his country. Campbell was not a virtuous man before, mostly apathetic to the Germans before he was recruited. However, he went from apathetic to one of the most heinous Nazis in the war, in order to help the greater good. In his humorous, profound style, Vonnegut has so far posed some unanswerable moral questions, usually after giving the reader a guilty laugh.

Mother Night