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In the not-so-distant future, the population of Earth has risen to 17 billion. A clandestine resistance group called the "nothingheads" has formed, whose members refuse to take the mandatory drugs. Billy then explains that she resents him for his ugliness, but that she will eventually find a mate worthy of her beauty since the nothinghead movement is growing. He contends that sex has come to equal death in their world, so that most people only witness sexual beauty at the moment of hostess-assisted suicide. When Nancy wakes up, her ethical birth control has worn off; she is a nothinghead. The women bathe her, dress her in a white nightgown, and lead her outside to the Kennedys' old yacht, now rooted in cement where the ocean used to be.
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Much like many traditional science fiction stories, "Welcome to the Monkey House" exploits an ugly possibility born out of a recognizable human quality. Whether or not Vonnegut's use of humor heightens or detracts from that ugliness is a matter of taste, but it is certainly unique. Billy the Poet is a "nothinghead," meaning he has not been taking his ethical birth control pills, and hence enjoys sex (30). Because the world is so overpopulated, the World Government has required all citizens to take the pills - which make sex pleasureless - in order to dissuade unnecessary reproduction. The second part of the government's plan involves ethical, voluntary suicide via Suicide Parlors, where beautiful hostesses like Nancy and Mary use syringes to peacefully kill suicide volunteers. The human quality which Vonnegut exaggerates for this story is sexuality, a particularly taboo topic in 1968, when the story was first published in Playboy.
Essays for Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Stories
Realizing that the gang is comprised of ex-hostesses, she insults them and they attack her. Like all hostesses of Ethical Suicide Parlors, Mary and Nancy are virgins, at least six feet tall, and experts in judo and karate. They are annoyed with the sheriff's news, since it implies they would be either afraid of Billy the Poet or the slightest bit interested in having sex with him. They carry her upstairs into one of the museum bedrooms, and inject her with a truth serum that also knocks her unconscious.
Study Guide for Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Stories
Afterward, he explains to her that the solution to the overpopulation problem lies not in encouraging suicide and taking all the pleasure out of sex, but rather in the use of birth control pills. He lets her go and leaves her a bottle of the pills, with a label reading "Welcome to the Monkey House." And yet he treats the idea of ethical birth control with the most irony here. Of course, Vonnegut and the reader know that science and morals have not historically gone hand in hand, but have rather almost always worked at odds in most debates. Secondly, Vonnegut expects us to know that sex without pleasure is quite unappealing. Through his use of irony, Vonnegut compels the reader to question whether the government's mandate is, in fact, more "unnatural and immoral" than the birth control itself (31).
Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works
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The stories are often intertwined and convey the same underlying messages on human nature and mid-twentieth century society. He leaves her with a poem to read, the poem his grandfather read his bride on their wedding night. It is "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways," by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. He also leaves her a bottle of birth control pills, which he tells her she can take once per month to avoid getting pregnant, but without dulling her sex drive. Suddenly, Foxy Grandpa pulls a revolver and removes his rubber mask to reveal that he is actually Billy the Poet. Though he looks twenty-two like most people, he is a foot shorter than Nancy and forty pounds lighter.
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He admits his intention to keep her prisoner until her ethical birth control pills wear off in eight hours. This story is one of several that takes its inspiration from the problem of overpopulation. A real problem even today, overpopulation often allows Vonnegut to empower his fictional governments with excessive power. In this story, the Earth is full of 17 billion human beings, most of whom are unemployed because nearly all work can be accomplished by machines. As the narrator explains, "Practically everything was the Government. Practically everything was automated, too" (34). The implicit suggestion is that governments exploit realistic fears in order to justify their extreme control over individuals.
Kurt Vonnegut's Short Stories
In contrast to those good citizens who take the mandated ethical birth control, the nothingheads are described as "bombed out of their skulls with the sex madness that came from taking nothing" (33). The idea of "sex madness" is necessarily absurd, considering that sexuality is so natural. The story was originally published in Playboy in January 1968, and some of the aspects discussed seem to be written right for this very readership. Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of 25 short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut, published by Delacorte in August 1968. The stories range from wartime epics to futuristic thrillers, given with satire and Vonnegut's unique edge.
About Kurt Vonnegut
By forcing us to consider the absurdity of the government's position, Vonnegut leads us to consider the absurdity of other similarly moral strictures that we might encounter in everyday life. "Welcome to the Monkey House" is a perfect example of Vonnegut's signature style of comic science fiction, a style that digresses from the science fiction tradition. Whereas traditional science fiction is often noted for its seriousness, Vonnegut peppers his descriptions of a bizarre and terrifying world with absurdist humor.
Assuming this man is Billy the Poet, Nancy is actually upset that she will not have the chance to fight him. Pete Crocker, the sheriff of Barnstable County, enters the Federal Ethical Suicide Parlor in Hyannis, Massachusetts, to warn its two hostesses - Nancy McLuhan and Mary Kraft - about Billy the Poet. Though Billy the Poet is allegedly moving in their direction, the police do not know what he looks like. Evening the playing field and oppressing natural ability allows the government complete control. The Question and Answer section for Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Stories is a greatresource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. In one of the yacht cabins, Billy the Poet waits with champagne, which is illegal.
Finally, the approach to the rape scene reveals the sexist misconceptions of the time in which Vonnegut wrote this story. The narrator states unironically that Billy the Poet is attracted to Hostesses in Ethical Suicide Parlors, as if sexual assault were interchangeable with sexual attraction. When Nancy tells Billy the Poet that he makes her feel like an object rather than like a person, he answers that she can "thank the pills for that," as if sexism is only a problem due to the ethical birth control pills (41). After raping Nancy, just as he has raped all the other women in his gang, Billy is treated as the story's voice of reason. And when explaining that wives have always suffered a difficult wedding night, he seems to accept the patriarchal idea that a virginal women has little agency in her own sexuality. One member of the group, a criminal named Billy the Poet, is known to have deflowered several Ethical Suicide Parlor hostesses.
Vonnegut suggests here that fake, strict morality denies human nature, and hence cannot be tolerated. Though the story does feel dated in some ways, it remains extremely relevant considering how many forces in America - both in politics and in everyday life - continue to demean open sexuality as sinful. In fact, Vonnegut comments on the real-world nature of the problem through the name J.
Before she passes out, Nancy is asked how it feels to be a virgin at age sixty-three, and she answers, "Pointless" (44). "Welcome to the Monkey House" is a Kurt Vonnegut short story that is part of the collection of the same name. It is alluded to in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater as one of Kilgore Trout's stories. Kurt Vonnegut's Short Stories study guide contains a biography of author Kurt Vonnegut, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of Vonnegut's most famous stories. The caller recites another dirty rhyme, claiming he is delivering it for a friend. Immediately after finishing the poem, he is attacked by the police; Nancy hears his defeat and arrest.
