Vonnegut, Kurt--Criticism and interpretation

In an ever-changing society beset by technological growth, Kurt Vonnegut has found dissatisfaction with traditional masculine behavioral patterns that perpetuate masculine aggression. Vonnegut abandons gender-specific roles to propose alternative methods of behavior through his creation of passive protagonists. These passive protagonists have a nurturing element and an ability to share their essence with others. This feminine nurturing element is seen by Vonnegut as a critical element essential for humanity's evolution and salvation. The passive protagonists examined are Eliot Rosewater in God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five, and Rabo Karabekian in Bluebeard.

Many of Kurt Vonnegut's central characters are benevolent
advocates of positive human change. Because of the
absurdities of their world, these efforts are futile and
doomed to failure. Rumfoord attempts "to do good for
my native earth" in The Sirens of Titan, on a cosmic
scale. Lionel Boyd Johnson, Bokonon, in eat's Cradle,
creates a religion based on lies to lessen the awful
truth. Eliot Rosewater in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
attempts to love the "discarded" Americans of Rosewater,
Indiana, on a one-to-one basis. The conflicts inherent
in. Vonnegut's world cloud the motivation of these efforts
but they are still sincere efforts within their
pluralistic framework. The results are a mixture of
positive and negative; the most positive exist on a
small human scale; the most negative on a collective or
institutional scale.