War Crimes

" I was deposited on to the streets of New York, restored to the mainstream of life. I took several steps down the sidewalk when something happened. It was not guilt that froze me; I had taught myself never to feel guilt. It wasn't the fear of death; I had taught myself to think of death as a friend. It was not the thought of being unloved that froze me; I had taught myself to do without love. What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction."

Much like Slaughterhouse Five, Mother Night also concerns itself with the atrocities of war and how it can change those who are inextricably involved in it. Howard Campbell Jr., having just only just arrived from Germany, is now uncertain of where he stands in the world. War has taught him how to disguise his true self, how to mask him emotions, leaving him somewhat confused and lost. Now, he is left with daunting task of defining himself and his purpose, in addition to reconciling his identity with his actions and the questionable role that he played in the war. Campbell's true self has become both lost and irrelevant, in a sense, because of his role as a both an American spy and a notorious Nazi propagandist. He has difficulty in evaluating the true intent behind his actions in the war, and he is left as a shell of a human being, one dazed on the streets of New York with "no reason to move in any direction."

Should Campbell be held responsible for the part that he played in the war, even if he was just playing the role that he was casted? Do you think that his intentions were pure?

Mother Night

"You broke my heart when you married my daughter.

--Yes, I know.

I wanted a German soldier for a son-in-law. Because I hated you so much, I studied you. I listened to everything you said. Never missed a broadcast. Did you know that until this very moment,

nothing would have delighted me more than to prove you were a spy, to see you shot?

Now I couldn't care less if you are a spy.

- Do you know why?
- No.

Because now I know that even if you were a spy, you could never have served the enemy as well as you

 served us.  All the ideals that make me proud of being a Nazi... they came not from Hitler, 

not from Goebbels but from you. You alone kept me from concluding that Germany had gone insane."

--Conversation between Howard Campbell and Herr Noth.

In the scene preceding this conversation, Campbell admits in a monologue that he is an American spy. 

He says he hasn't told his wife about who he is because 'politics has no place in their nation of two' 

and to prevent her from living in constant fear.  

Campbell is caught up in espionage  and has done such a remarkable job to this point that he is trusted by

higher ranking officials including his father-in-law, the Police Chief.  Campbell explains that the "moral

 is to be careful what you pretend to be because in the end you are who you pretend to be."; suggesting that 

he may become a member of the Nazis since he has lived as one for so long. He had been told by the

American officials he reported to that if caught, they would deny knowing of his existence as a American or 

a spy.

Do you agree that pretending to be something you're not can eventually result in actually believing you are that?

Death: The Moral of the Story

"It's alright. It doesn't mean anything now. Nothing means anything. Go ahead and shoot the dog." - Young Resi North, 00:33:30

We meet Resi North here, played by Kirsten Dunst, as the Russian Army comes to overtake her childhood home. Resi is sitting on the couch with her dog and seems to be completely content with the upcoming murder of her pet, which will be shot by Howard Campbell. Before they part, Resi confesses her love for Howard and her envy of his relationship with her sister Helga. This scene is particularly chilling because of Resi's absolute dismissal of her dog, yet the maturity of her developing feelings for Howard. Her feelings toward death as the only thing she believes in foreshadows her own death later after she pretends to be Helga. Though young in appearance, Resi's mature demeanor is not to be dismissed. This solidifies Vonnegut's primary theme: "the moral of the story." It's easy to not take Resi seriously because of her age, but it's important to not fully dismiss pretenses because they often turn out to be true.

Resi seems to dismiss the things that will hurt her, attempting to put up a wall against letting the permanence of death give her reason to mourn. Her maturity at such a young age helps her cope and grow into a strong minded female. Though Resi seems to be strong, is it really that important that she creates these notions at such an early age? Would her life be more successful if she had a "normal" childhood?

All The World's A Stage!

Page 257, when Howard W. Campbell Jr. asks Dr. Epstein to turn him into Israeli police:

“This is not the first time you’ve seen eyes like that,” [Mrs. Epstein] said to her son in German, “not the first man you’ve seen who could not move unless someone told him where to move, who longed for someone to tell him what to do next, who would do anything anyone told him to do next. You saw thousands of them in Auschwitz.”

[...]

“You still want revenge?” [Epstein] asked [his mother].

“Yes,” she said.

He put his face close to mine. “And you really want to be punished?” he said.

“I want to be tried,” I said.

“It’s all play acting,” [Epstein] said, exasperated with both of us. “It proves nothing!”

This passage encompasses many of the important issues of the novel, ones that I can hopefully address without rambling. What does identity mean, and who is it defined by? Are we responsible for our actions? To what extent are we both the victims and the persecutors in war? Finally, what is the meaning of life?

Identity in Mother Night is often dramatically ironic because of the novel’s premise: Howard Campbell is a spy for the Americans, but everyone in the world except for three people believe him to be a Nazi propaganda agent. There is a noteworthy divide between Campbell’s essence and the “character” he must play, but does it really matter if no one knows this inner person? I think Vonnegut actually quite explicitly answers this question, though with tongue-in-cheek, when he states: “We are what we pretend to be.” As in, Campbell’s identity has been externalized to the point where he decides to give himself up to the Israelis, because after all, he is this Nazi persona to everyone else in the world. I don’t think this is a case of cognitive dissonance either, which would suggest he turns himself in because his thoughts must conform to his actions. I think it is more indicative of his fatalism, if anything. He must accept the consequences of his actions, even IF he didn’t mean them inwardly, because he views his path as inevitable. Perhaps there is some truth in Adolf Eichmann’s advice--the secret of success is evincing what is expected of you.

It is also interesting to note the contrast between Epstein’s mother and Campbell in this scene. Life is without objective meaning or direction, as attested by the thousands of Auschwitz victims who “longed for someone to tell them what to do next.” Therefore, characters must create their own purposes in life: Epstein’s mother wants revenge, and Campbell wants to be tried for his crimes against humanity. (Note that this is not always what his purpose is--at the beginning, it seems his meaning in life is to love Helga. Likewise, O’Hare’s purpose is to kill Campbell, nihilistic Resi’s purpose is to find a purpose, and Kraft defines his purpose as primarily artistic.) To me, it is intriguing that Epstein’s mother wants revenge here. She serves as a device to demonstrate that humans all have a hateful side--fascists killed people they deemed as weaker out of self-righteousness, but those persecuted can be driven to hatred just as easily. The distinction between “enemy” and “friend” is blurred throughout the novel, and perhaps Vonnegut is saying that these are just more roles people create.

Discussion: Is everyone in the world merely playing a part? If so, how can we define truth? Is there absolute anything?

Unjust

"Alright, you want me to be a Nazi, you got ahead and classify me as a Nazi. You want to hang me, go ahead, you hang me if you think it will raise moral...." -Campbell
"I just want you to know how little we can really do for you." -Wirtanen

In this scene, Campbell is angry at Wirtanen, because no one in the U.S. can know what he has done to contribute to the war. Campbell has sacrificed his life and is left with nothing once he has returned to America. No one can know that he was actually a spy, and the world can only know that he is a broadcaster for Nazi's propaganda. This scene in the movie highlights how Campbell has made a such a big sacrifice for his nation, and yet, his nation refuses to do anything for him. The war highlights how the Nazi's were the ones who would abuse and torment the Jews, but essentially, America has done the same to Campbell. Instead of celebrating how he has aided in the war, no one can even have knowledge of the fact that he was a spy for his nation, and is left to fend for himself. The scene highlights the shortcomings of war and deglorifies it. Typically everyone hears about the heroes that have done amazing things to win the war for their nation, but we forget about the unspoken heroes.

Was it justified for America to not acknowledge Campbell's contribution to the war? Did Campbell truly remain loyal to America when he was with the Nazi's?

War and Bad Breath

"Trout's leading robot looked like a human being, and could talk and dance and so on, and go out with girls. And nobody held it against him that he dropped jellied gasoline on people. But they found his halitosis unforgivable. But then he cleared that up, and he was welcomed to the human race."

-pg 214

In this particular passage, Vonnegut is describing a story by Billy Pilgrim's favorite science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout. However, Vonnegut does not pass up this moment in order to bring to light a characteristic of human nature regarding the blind acceptance of war. Vonnegut is placing "dropping jellied gasoline on people" and "halitosis" on the same level, and further makes hurting other human beings to be more acceptable. He is not creating this comparison in order for it to be taken seriously (similar to the rest of the novel), rather he is creating this comparison in order for the reader to make a realization about human acceptance of the war. Most humans accept war as a necessary evil- of course many people do not support it, yet war continues to be looked upon as something that must be done. Most people look at war as one single action, yet fail to recognize the smaller actions within war, such as hurting other human beings. Mankind can forgive people who do this "necessary evil," yet many times steer clear of people who have simple undesirable qualities such as "halitosis." Although Vonnegut takes this comparison to the extreme (dropping jellied gasoline is not a common practice in war, and no one would actually exclude someone on the basis of halitosis), such extremity forces the reader to reflect upon common beliefs about war and its acceptability as a whole.

In your opinion, do you think that this novel effectively brought war to the extreme in order for a greater truth to be exposed? Also, is this tactic what people need in order to recognize that war is not what people crack it up to be?

Vegetable

"Why don't they let him die?" he asked Lily.
"I don't know," she said.

"That's not a human being anymore."

Billy's roommate in the hospital, Professor Rumfoord, and his wife have this conversation about him while he is assumed to be in a vegetable state. Billy is aware of his surroundings, what is happening and what is being said, but he doesn't fight this attitude people have taken toward him. If he cared to say anything in response, it would probably "I know! that's what I've been saying all along, I just want to die." Finally people are treating him how he wish they would have his whole life. Here, medically he is a vegetable and it seems to be less painful to speed up death.

But hasn't he been a vegetable all along? What does it take to be considered a functioning human being? If Billy Pilgrim has never made any choices, and really tried to live, has he just been slowly dying all this time?