“We take our leave of a Vonnegut novel, even Hocus Pocus, feeling…what? Certainly not comforted, nor galvanized” (Leonard 1). Kurt Vonnegut uses his novels to show that man’s attempts to raise human existence to a higher level are feeble and ineffective. Hocus Pocus is a great example. The narrator, Eugene Debs Hartke, is thrown in prison before he even begins to write the story. The events in his life are somewhat random, but this just adds to the overall theme: the futility of human existence. Although the theme of human futility is not readily apparent to most critics, Kurt Vonnegut conveys this underlying message in most of his novels, especially Hocus Pocus.

Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle is a shining example of his constant theme. In his novel Cat’s Cradle, one of the characters makes a grand invention, Ice-Nine. Ice-nine is an isotope of water that is solid at room temperature. It is first thought to be a great advancement designed to harden mud for the army. Naturally, it accidentally lands in the ocean and freezes all of the seawater within seconds. Although created to help people, Ice-Nine destroys almost all life on Earth. Humans again think that they have made something good, but they fail miserably. This is the point that Vonnegut continuously makes. Every time a human makes an effort to raise the level of society, there are several reactions that pull it right back down, intentional or not.

Cat’s Cradle also shows humanity’s vain attempts to justify itself. Religion is what the human race has used to help people believe that there is some purpose for life, to explain away bad events and give hope by proposing there is some divine being guiding everyone’s lives. However, Cat’s Cradle shows that these are all just pleasant lies with the best intentions. A character within the book creates a religion called Bokononism. This religion refutes itself by saying that all of its teachings are lies. However, it also preaches that if one were to truly believe and adhere to these lies, they would live a happy life. This irony of a self-contradicting religion shows the idea of human worthlessness.

Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five is another work that illustrates this theme. Many critics believe this only to be Vonnegut’s personal account of the horror that was Dresden. “Slaughterhouse-Five is Vonnegut’s attempt to both document and denounce this event” (“Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. (1922- )” 2). However, if one were to study the novel more closely, they can see another, underlying theme; the worthlessness of human life. The critic Harris agrees in his analysis of the main character of Slaughterhouse-Five. “Even the destruction of Dresden, which claimed the lives of 135,000 German citizens, mostly civilians, draws the following response from Billy: “Everything is all right, and everybody has to do exactly what he does”” (2). Kurt Vonnegut brings the humane aspect of an uncaring attitude for human life to light with this novel. Dresden was not documented as a major event during World War II, nor is it a major historical event today. The Allied forces of WWII bombed the German city of Dresden in this horrible event. Over 135,000 people were killed, more than the amount killed by the atomic bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. (”Overview…” 2) Even so, it never made its way into history books or newspapers because it did not make any real difference in the war. The main character of Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy, witnesses this event and is still able to say that everything is “ok.” Dresden went mostly unnoticed until Vonnegut pulled it out into the open with Slaughterhouse-Five. Few people had heard of it, and those that did never cared. Human death was something society just accepted then, and still does now. This trait of human uncaring once again points to the futility of human action.