The Negative Representation of Women at the Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions was written, as he says in the opening pages, " to clear my head of all the junk it contains. The things that others have put in my head, in any case, don't come together well, are often useless and ugly" (5). Although Vonnegut wrote this book more than twenty years after Simone de Beauvoir assessed the place of women in the world, her scathing social criticism shows that the position of women has not changed much, that they are still the "Others " in relation to men An imperfect society contributes to this situation, but Vonnegut shows that misplaced priorities, foolish behaviors, and superficial ways of thinking lead to bad ends for women. In the descriptions of Patty Keene, Francine Pefko. , Mary Alice Miller, and Beatrice Keedsler, it becomes clear that Vonnegut intends not only to show women's submission to men, but also to show how weaknesses in current ways of thinking lead to negative events. In describing the character of Patty Keene, Vonnegut also comments on the general condition of women and the fact that very few seem to think for themselves. He says Patty is "willingly stupid, which was the case with most of the women in Midland City." Women all had great minds because they were big animals, but they didn't use them much for that reason: unusual ideas could make enemies, and women, if they wanted to gain any form of comfort and security, needed all the friends they could get” (136). Vonnegut then criticizes women for becoming "machines of accepting instead of thinking", since many form their opinions by simply discovering "what others thought, and then they thought... middle of paper... iety, circa 1973. In portraying the materialistic Patty Keene, the submissive Francine Pefko, the dominated Mary Alice Miller, and the frivolous Beatrice Keedsler, Vonnegut suggests that women are not entirely responsible for their weak behavior and ideas, but rather that 'they are the product of an imperfect character; society in which women must submit to men. However, whatever the cause of these faulty ways of thinking, the results are usually negative, especially for the women involved. "What particularly characterizes the situation of the woman is that she is a free and autonomous person. being like all other human creatures--she nevertheless finds herself living in a world where men force her to assume the status of “the Other””--Simone de Beauvoir, Introduction to the Second Sex, Knopf, XXXV. Works cited: Vonnegut, Kurt New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc..., 1973.