https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m en-us 2019-03-13 15:47:05 UTC 2019-03-26 15:40:23 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padletuploads.blob.core.windows.net/prod/80264060/cdf38ae2d21ee13c036196e76c1eb262/Backback.png emmanuela21309 https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340943996 His name is Kurt Vonnegut and he was born on November 11, 1922 in  Indianapolis, Indiana. His dad, Kurt Sr was a prominent architect in the city and his wife Edith was the daughter of a wealthy businessman. When Kurt Sr decided to sell the family home and take Kurt out of private school because of the depression. This radical change in economic circumstances caused Kurt Sr. virtually to give up on life and Edith to become addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. Kurt Jr.’s lifelong pessimism clearly had its roots in his parents’ despairing response to being blindsided by the Depression. At short ridge high, he wrote for the student paper, the echo which made him interested in journalism.  When World War II broke out, Vonnegut was 16; at 20, he entered the army and was shipped off to Europe, where he almost immediately was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.  After the war, Vonnegut married Jane Cox. They had their first child, Mark.  Within 10 years following the arrival of the Adams boys, the short-story market was drying up and Vonnegut turned his attention to novels. He published the whimsical sci-fi epic The Sirens of Titan, the spy novel Mother Night, the fanciful anthropological satire of religion Cat’s Cradle, a critique of economic injustice, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and, in 1969, his Dresden novel,Slaughterhouse-Five. ]]> 2019-03-13 15:52:52 UTC https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340943996 oliviah21563 https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340944209 Two of Kurt Vonnegut's major influences include Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw. Some of the authors that mostly helped shape the style of writing he was famously known for were William Shakespeare and James Joyce. He enjoyed the simplicity of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The style of writing used in "Hamlet" was simple and straight-forward. Kurt Vonnegut's style of writing was known to be "minimalist and dry" (Kurt Vonnegut Writing Style and Themes). He also mentioned using short and simple sentences in his stories and how that "could convey every emotion in human language in only a few words"  (Kurt Vonnegut Writing Style and Themes). In other words, Kurt Vonnegut believes that being straight-forward with his sentences conveys a more realistic approach to human emotion and can connect more to the reader.]]> 2019-03-13 15:53:06 UTC https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340944209 markk21938 https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340945303 When Kurt was growing up his parents were fluent in German but his parents didn't teach him because after WWI they had to abandon their culture to show American patriotism. This left him feeling "ignorant and rootless." He had an African American housekeeper and cook named Ida Young that stayed with them for 10 years. Kurt Vonnegut Jr states  "[She] gave me decent moral instruction and was exceedingly nice to me. So she was as great an influence on me as anybody".


Before Vonnegut died he says he would sue Pall Mall branded cigarettes. Vonnegut states "I'm 83 years old. The lying bastards! On the package Brown & Williamson promised to kill me."


]]> 2019-03-13 15:54:39 UTC https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340945303 oliviah21563 https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340954920 https://www.quora.com/What-were-Kurt-Vonneguts-literary-influences

https://study.com/academy/lesson/kurt-vonneguts-writing-style-themes.html

https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/kurt-biography/

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]]> 2019-03-13 16:12:12 UTC https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/340954920 elissas21147 https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/341787589      
      One of Kurt Vonnegut's best known works other than Slaughterhouse 5 is Cat's Cradle. This novel is meant to introduce doubt and skepticism into the readers lives about all the things they were told and believed without sufficient evidence or proof. For example, there are countless things we were told in our youth by our parents and our superiors which we simply believed, and continued to believe even though theres a possibility that none of those things are true. The book's title "Cat's Cradle" is meant to introduce such skepticism because we are told that the game is Cat's Cradle but in reality, there is no cat, and there is no cradle so what can we really believe? 
         The book received quite a bit of public criticism because of its stance on religion. Similar to the rest of the book, Vonnegut calls into question the legitimacy of religion which ultimately consists of stories told to us which we simply believed without question and called it "faith" instead of ignorance. This reflects Vonnegut's agnosticism but he also allows the reader to understand that religion, although it may be a fallacy, provides unification and a set of laws that generally revolve around peace and positivity and can therefore be useful. 
  Vonnegut won the Hugo award for three of his books, including Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's cradle and the Sirens of Titans. He also won the Nebula award for Slaughterhouse 5, the Locus award and numerous others.]]> 2019-03-15 14:52:19 UTC https://padlet.com/markk21938/hbfwrs7h7e2m/wish/341787589