Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Because if we’re not robots, how else do you explain the awful nightmare it is to exist in this sad and sorrowful world? We have to be! And we’re all programmed to act a certain way. The satirical premise of Breakfast of Champions is that we’re all robots. Didn’t we learn – somewhere along the way – that war is bad? That killing people is bad? We’re All Robots…or Computer Simulations Countless wars have ensued since the end of the Vietnam War, including the Gulf War, Bosnian War, Kosovo War, War in Afghanistan, and Iraq War. Between the end of World War II and the start of the Vietnam War, yet another war had already been fought – the Korean War. Vonnegut himself had fought in World War II (he was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge). Published in 1973, America was just beginning to pull out of the Vietnam War – a terribly divisive, costly, and long conflict. This, I am certain, was the mindset of Kurt Vonnegut when he wrote Breakfast of Champions.

Every step forward is followed by two steps backward.

After all, the book was written nearly 50 years ago! Surely society has changed…improved…learned from its mistakes and righted its wrongs!īut it hasn’t. The satire and societal criticisms found within Breakfast of Champions should feel outdated. May 13, 2021Apby Peter In Books 1 Comment

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.