Kurt Vonnegut as a Social CriticThose who write about the human condition are often philosophers who write with convoluted language that few people can understand. Kurt Vonnegut, however, focuses on the same questions and provides his own personal answers with as much depth as those of the most educated philosopher. He avoids the stilted language typical of philosophers, using shorter sentences, less complex vocabulary, humorous tangents, and scandalous stories to get his point across. With this style, Vonnegut asks the age-old question "How can we, as humans, live in this world?" » in an attractive and understandable way for the less educated mass. In giving advice to writers on how to write, Vonnegut said: "Our audiences demand that we be sympathetic and patient teachers, always ready to simplify and clarify, while we prefer to hover above the crowd, singing like nightingales” (Palm Sunday, p. 71). Vonnegut does not try to captivate the reader with eloquent language. Instead, he gets his point across, asking the reader to think about his ideas, and that's what really matters because writing is simply a means of expressing ideas. By writing easy-to-read books, Kurt Vonnegut makes constructive criticism of human society accessible to everyone. Perhaps one of Vonnegut's main themes focuses on the greatest atrocity that man commits: war. As a survivor of World War II and a witness to the firebombing of Dresden, Vonnegut uses his novels to question this destructive process. It doesn't make sense that we kill each other and destroy the earth because of hatred, territory, or any other cause of war. Vonnegut draws our attention to the millions of people who are losing their lives so inhumanely because of war. Does that make sense...... middle of paper ......1972.Schatt, Stanley. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Boston: Twayne Publishers. 1976. Vonnegut, Jr. Kurt. Palm Sunday. Dell Publishing Company. 1999. “Bands Influenced by Vonnegut.” May 24, 2001. Farber, Donald. "The Complete Kurt Vonnegut Web Page". May 24, 2001. Huber, Chris. "The Vonnegut Web" May 24, 2001. "Kurt Vonnegut Quotes." May 24, 2001. "The Kurt Vonnegut Book List." May 24, 2001 "Quotes on Religion - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.". May 25 2001.>