Beginnings In Vonnegut’s Works

Rania Betrouni

English 12

Mr. Meister

20 March 2019

Beginnings

In Lodge’s book, “The Art of Fiction”, he begins by talking about the beginnings of novels and the way authors choose their style to convey their individual ideas. The beginning of a novel tends to be the determining factor for whether or not the book is a worthy read in regards to the reader. However, constructing the beginning of a novel is decidedly one of the most perplexing and difficult things to do. Many authors choose to begin their novels with descriptions of the main characters and slowly immersing the reader into their textualized world, on the other hand, some writers begin their novels with an attention-grabbing first sentence to entice the reader into reading more. The beginning of a novel most often gives the reader the necessary insight and background information including character names, setting, and relationship dynamics which makes the story more comprehensive later on. In Kurt Vonnegut’s work, “Welcome to the Monkey House” and “Miss Temptation”, Vonnegut delivers two ways of beginning a story; through character description and setting.

In Vonnegut’s “Welcome to the Monkey House”, the story begins with action. A character is named and described as a sheriff coming into the office to deliver the news. The transition between explaining the dystopian setting and delivering present action within the novel interlocks to create an interesting and consistently progressive read for the reader. Although new information is introduced, the reader does not lose interest or feel overwhelmed by the onslaught of information, instead, the reader is already immersed in the description of the dystopian world and feels an obligation to continue reading in order to see what happens next as the characters are introduced in accordance to appearance. Each character introduced is given their respective description, however, the description contains relevant details which helps the reader in understanding the setting of the story. Another reason why this form of writing beginnings is so essential to a novel is the importance of creating an introduction for the entirety of the novel in the sense of what type of work it is and what theme the story belongs to. From the getgo the reader immediately understands that the story is set in the future, dystopian like, and explores a theme of science vs. morality. In fact, the final sentence of the beginning is evident as it concludes the entirety of the story “thus did science and morals go hand in hand”.

“Miss Temptation” is another one of Vonnegut’s work which begins with a heavy focus on one of the main characters. The story begins with a descriptive paragraph on Susanna’s physical appearance and standing in her small town. Although these details may quickly be brushed off as unnecessary information, it is in reality, one of the essential points in the story. Susanna’s beauty is what makes her character important to the plot of the story. Her character is soon developed to become a symbol for stereotypes on the female gender. However, the beginning of the story tests the reader’s own first impression of Susanna and can even deliver a startling sense of awareness of how a first impression can be wildly misleading as well as how even the reader may fall under the same trap as the ‘lesser knowing’ characters in “Miss Temptation.”

Vonnegut is a perfect example of how writing beginnings can set expectations for the rest of the story as well as how it determines the enticingness of a story. Although not all authors share the same writing style, they do share the same goals when it comes to writing and it is to grab the reader’s attention all the while conveying their own ideas. Often times one of the most difficult parts of the story to write, beginnings have the power to create a strong delivery of ideas and messages.