Sirens of Titan - The Relationship Rumfoord/Constant

Seminar paper from the year 1995 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 3, Technical University of Berlin (Institut fur Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft), course: PS: Richard Brautigan and Kurt Vonnegut, language: English, abstract: The Sirens of Titan is a science fiction novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It was first published in 1959 and was one of Vonnegut's three science fiction novels besides serveral stories that were all published after the Second World War. With The Sirens of Titan Vonnegut sets an ironical focus on military space armament, military (command) hierarchy and the possible influence of other, higher developed beings from foreign planets on human beings. It also contains a satyrical view on the society of the U.S.A. It is also a story about the manipulation and manipulative skill of men and ist limits. The author was born in Indianapolis in 1922. He started to study biochemistry. As prisoner of war he expierienced the bombardement of Dresden, an event that engraved upon his memory. After the Second World War he studied anthropology and became an independent writer. During his studies he gained distance to the prevailing opinions of the American society. In total he wrote three science fiction novels, apart from The Sirens of Titan these are Player Piano (1952) and Cats Cradle ((1963). His most famous novel is Slaughterhouse Five (1969), a novel with which he tried to digest his war impressions. Altogether he wrote about 12 novels; their satyrical style made him to a kind of cult-figure for American students. He was an initiator of the Organisation of American Science Fiction Writers (SFWA). He belongs to those few science fiction writers who have managed to settle down in contemporary literature. The Sirens of Titan is as well a story about a very strange relation between two men. This relation shall be the theme of this work. Winston Niles Rumfoord and Malachi Constant are the names of the two protagonists in this novel. The setting of this novel is not only placed on Earth. Both travelthrough the galaxy and reach Mars, Mercury and finally Titan.