Cadi Ayyad University

Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Marrakech

Guided Reading I
(9)
• “2BR02B" is a clever science fiction short story by Kurt
Vonnegut Jr., the title is pronounced “2BR naught 2B.”
• This title references the famous phrase “to be, or not to
be” from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Act 3 scene 1.
“Hamlet: To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms to a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep–” (44)
Life and death, to live or to die, isn’t this true for Wehling?
Analysis of Vonnegut’s short story “2BR02B”
(1962):
• The story is about Edward K. Wehling Jr.
• His wife is pregnant.
• She will give birth to triplets.
• Can he have triplets?
• The problem is that no newborn is allowed to
survive unless the parents find a volunteer to
die, and Wehling’s grandfather is the only
person who has stepped up.
• Why do you have the use of the phrase “the
unhappy couple” in the short story?
• The first page offers an introduction to the
plot, a first encounter with events and
characters.
• What comes later is the rising action and it is
long before the climax.
• Where do you have the climax in “2BR02B”?
• When Wehling commits a crime.
• The setting of Vonnegut’s “2BR02B”:
• Chicago Lying-in Hospital, USA – a bright morning.
• “2BR02B” ridicules the perfectly constructed and
organized society where there were no prisons, no
slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no
wars, where all diseases as well as old age were
conquered.
• It critiques this kind of society as something unreal.
• This utopian society doesn’t exist.
• “Wehling was fifty-six” (2). So, who is Wehling?
• Edward K. Wehling, aged 56, is the protagonist of the
short story.
• His wife is pregnant and triplets are coming.
• What is the dilemma of Wehling?
• He is expecting triplets and he is summoned to make
a choice.
“Young Wehling was hunched in his chair, his head in his
hand. He was so rumpled, so still and colorless as to be
virtually invisible. His camouflage was perfect, since
the waiting room had a disorderly and demoralized air,
too. Chairs and ashtrays had been moved away from the
walls. The floor was paved with spattered dropcloths.”
(2)
• What does this description of Wehling and the room
imply?
• It seems that the description of Wehling reveals his deep misery
as a helpless character. Also, his inability to change his
situation.
• In similar terms, the room is in a chaotic state in a way that
resembles the life of Wehling.
• Words such as ‘hunched’, ‘colorless’, ‘invisible’, ‘camouflage’ are
used to describe Wehling in the passage.
• While other similar words such as ‘disorderly’ (untidy),
‘demoralized’, ‘spattered’ are used to describe the waiting room
in the hospital.
• “A sardonic old man, about two hundred years old, sat on a
stepladder, painting a mural he did not like” (2).
• Who is the new character here?
• The painter. He is also referred to as the artist or the muralist.
“The mural he was working on depicted a very neat garden. Men
and women in white, doctors and nurses, turned the soil, planted
seedlings, sprayed bugs, spread fertilizer.
Men and women in purple uniforms pulled up weeds, cut down
plants that were old and sickly, raked leaves, carried refuse to
trash-burners” (2).
• What does the neat garden refer to?
• Compare ‘white’ and ‘purple’ uniforms? They stand
for a number of meanings in the story, what are they?
• “A coarse, formidable woman strode into the waiting room on
spike heels. Her shoes, stockings, trench coat, bag and overseas
cap were all purple, the purple the painter called ‘the color of
grapes on Judgment Day’.” (4)
• Who is the character here?
• Leora Duncan.
• She is a gas-chamber hostess. One of the hostesses.
• What color is dominant again? And why?
• What is the link between this and the previous passage?
• Vonnegut’s “2BR02B” is a brilliant example of
postmodernism.
• One feature is (1) “cool apathy”. It can be observed
throughout his short story.
• His characters aren’t concerned about anything and
don’t show any enthusiasm in anything.
• Such as the painter in “2BR02B”. He is an aloof observer
and he doesn’t want to interfere with anything.
• Postmodernism is also marked by intertextuality. It implies
explicit allusions and references to other sources, works.
• (2) Intertextuality serves as an aspect of the awareness about
history and works of art.
• We can find in his short story mentioning of various titles.
• For example, the very title of the story “2BR02B” is a reference
to the famous Hamlet’s monologue by William Shakespeare.
• Pick up a copy of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the source for the
phrase “to be or not to be,” and read the soliloquy where Hamlet
speaks these words (Act 3, Scene 1).
• What is the relationship between Shakespeare’s play and
Vonnegut’s tale?
• One of the main characters of the same story also mentions “the
invisible man” which reminds the reader of Herbert Wells’ novel
of the same name.
• Postmodernism is also marked by intertextuality. It implies
explicit allusions and references to other sources, works.
• What is also inherent in works of postmodernism is (3)
playfulness.
• It deals with meanings, words, and signs. The author plays with
the text and involves the reader in this “game”.
• Purpose of it is to give the reader an opportunity to take part in
understanding of the text, to guess what is going on and to
assume the developing events.
• Thus, in the story “2BR02B” there are several samples that
illustrate the wordplay in the text: “My name is Duncan” “And
you dunk people?” (4).
• It means the garden, standing for society in the story, is in its
best form.
• It reminds you of the utopian society here!
• Toodle-oo
• The color purple
• Old planet stands for planet Earth.
• The hospital attendant mocks the mural and the muralist.
• Satire is being used as a style throughout “2BR02B”.
• The satiric smile of the painter mocks the hospital attendant.
• What is satire?
• It’s the use of humour, irony and exaggeration to expose and
ridicule the society’s stupidity in the story.
• You also have ‘black humour’.
• “What makes you think you are not in it?” (2).
• Satire:
• It is both humorous and a constructive way of social criticism.
• Satire uses irony, it makes you laugh but at the same time
amazed of how a certain aspect is.
• Satire has an after-laugh-taste. It makes you think!
• Does “2BR02B” make you laugh?
• Does it make you think? If yes, of what exactly?
• A new character: Dr. Hitz
• Who is he?