emporary American society which set him apart from other science-fiction writers. His use of science fiction draws a humorous contrast between the all-important significance of the nature of the universe and of reality, and the insignificance of human life and society. All of his works emphasize the enormous forces acting on his characters, not the least of which is fate. As his writing progressed and matured, this stylistic nuance became more and more evident. In his book Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut describes his own style by means of Tralfamadorians, an alien race for whom time is nonexistent, and whose literature reflects this:Each clump of symbols is a brief, urgent message describing a situation,a scene. We Tralfamadorians read them all at once, not one after the oth-er. There isnt any particular relationship between all the messages ex-cept that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time (88).Indeed, Vonnegut has dismissed temporal continuity in his writing, and has thus eliminated suspense. Characters are often aware of their own inevitable destiny, as in The Sirens of Titan, and are helpless to stop it from coming to pass. Vonnegut makes it clear that modern society is much like this - people can see where theyre headed, but are too powerless or apathetic to prevent it.In his book Cats Cradle, Vonnegut mocks peoples mindless, apathetic acceptance of their fates by portraying a situation in which unimaginably powerful forces toss around people desperate to escape them. He presents civilizations attempt to commit suicide (Hocus Pocus, 72), the atomic bomb dropped at Hiroshima, and ends the book with all of the water on earth freezing as the result...
