"Back to the past" (Vonnegut 168), "Bulletin from the present" (187)
In Bluebeard, Vonnegut uses lots of flashbacks. The story is told by Rabo Karabekian, who is a seventy-one year old artist and he goes back and forth in time. Vonnegut makes it easy to follow by using phrases like "Back to the past" (168) and "Bulletin from the present" (187). Even though he goes back and forth in time several times in each chapter, it is clear when he is talking about the past and when he comes back to present.
"But I will tell you a secret: it does, it does" (180)
Kurt Vonnegut uses colons a lot in this novel. He writes a sentence and then puts colon to add explanation to the sentence. The second part of this quote shows another writing style of Vonnegut. After the colon, Vonnegut states "it does" twice. He does this throughout the novel. He often repeats a short phrase or a word two or three times to emphasize.
"I have just given this snap quiz to Celeste and her friends out by the tennis courts: 'Identify the following persons in history: 'W. C. Fields, the Empress Josephine, Booth Tarkington, and Al Jolson.' ' The only one they got was W. C. Fields, hose old movies are shown on TV" (99)
Celeste is the only teenager in this novel and Rabo describes her as a careless, ignorant girl. The quote shows how Celeste and her friends does not know historical figure and only knows what is on TV. Kurt Vonnegut mentions teenagers several times in the novel and those brief descriptions of them show how he thinks that young people nowadays have no (or very little) interest in the past and are careless about many things.
“‘Women are so useless and unimaginative, aren't they? All they ever think of planting in the dirt is the seed of something beautiful or edible. The only missile they can ever think of throwing at anybody is a ball or a bridal bouquet' " (239)
This quote expresses how women are different from men. When men were planting bombs to destroy things, women were planting flowers and vegetables. While men created missiles and threw them at each other or the whole town, women remained gentle and peaceful. Kurt Vonnegut talks a lot about war and the most important painting in this novel is about WWII. Its name is "Now It's the Women's Turn" and this shows how he expects women to stand up. After men have destroyed so much, Vonnegut relies on women to recreate the world with their gentle ways.
"I bought everything a painter could ever wish for, save for the ingredient he himself would have to supply: soul, soul, soul" (294) Rabo Karabekian, the main character, is an artist. He starts out as realistic artist and then changes to abstract expressionist. The reason why he becomes abstract painter is because painting something realistic was too easy for him. He wants to do more than just creating something that cameras can also produce and tries to do this by abstract painting. He feels that there is soul involved in abstract expressionism while realism lacks it. However, he fails as abstract artist and ends up painting a very realistic picture. But this painting is special because he supplied it with “soul”.
"Back to the pas
In Bluebeard, Vonnegut uses lots of flashbacks. The story is told by Rabo Karabekian, who is a seventy-one year old artist and he goes back and forth in time. Vonnegut makes it easy to follow by using phrases like "Back to the past" (168) and "Bulletin from the present" (187). Even though he goes back and forth in time several times in each chapter, it is clear when he is talking about the past and when he comes back to present.
"But I will tell you a secret: it does, it does" (180)
Kurt Vonnegut uses colons a lot in this novel. He writes a sentence and then puts colon to add explanation to the sentence. The second part of this quote shows another writing style of Vonnegut. After the colon, Vonnegut states "it does" twice. He does this throughout the novel. He often repeats a short phrase or a word two or three times to emphasize.
"I have just given
Celeste is the only teenager in this novel and Rabo describes her as a careless, ignorant girl. The quote shows how Celeste and her friends does not know historical figure and only knows what is on TV. Kurt Vonnegut mentions teenagers several times in the novel and those brief descriptions of them show how he thinks that young people nowadays have no (or very little) interest in the past and are careless about many things.
“‘Women are so useless and unimaginative, aren't they? All they ever think of planting in the dirt is the seed of something beautiful or edible. The only missile they can ever think of throwing at anybody is a ball or a bridal bouquet' " (239)
This quote expresses how women are different from men. When men were planting bombs to destroy things, women were planting flowers and vegetables. While men created missiles and threw them at each other or the whole town, women remained gentle and peaceful. Kurt Vonnegut talks a lot about war and the most important painting in this novel is about WWII. Its name is "Now It's the Women's Turn" and this shows how he expects women to stand up. After men have destroyed so much, Vonnegut relies on women to recreate the world with their gentle ways.
"I bought everything a painter could ever wish for, save for the ingredient he himself would have to supply: soul, soul, soul" (294)
Rabo Karabekian, the main character, is an artist. He starts out as realistic artist and then changes to abstract expressionist. The reason why he becomes abstract painter is because painting something realistic was too easy for him. He wants to do more than just creating something that cameras can also produce and tries to do this by abstract painting. He feels that there is soul involved in abstract expressionism while realism lacks it. However, he fails as abstract artist and ends up painting a very realistic picture. But this painting is special because he supplied it with “soul”.
**home**
**Curricular Connection**
**Literary Analysis**
**External Links and Supplemental Readings**
**Discussion Questions**