Kurt Vonneguts short story 2 B R 0 2 B talks of a utopia that has turned out to be a dystopia where everything is controlled by the government and the political system serves only the elite. Sheikh Tasmima Mrenmoi argues that we are living in similar times

KURT Vonneguts short story 2 B R 0 2 B is a Juvenal satire. The Federal Bureau of Termination in 2 B R 0 2 B is promoting selective immortalities in several places for example, Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers. In these lines, it shows that killing people seemed like an enjoyment for the volunteers who are supposedly the doctors and people liked them. Vonnegut is not afraid of his chosen words either, hes constantly offending people as well, like Swift.

Restoration has some qualities of Renaissance which means the zeitgeist is more or less the same. Restoration is the age of isms and the era was all about what was challenged before. In other words, an era of light, hence the enlightenment. The light of enlightenment is knowledge, if we remember how we lost the paradise we lost the fruit of knowledge so knowledge can be sometimes forbidden and if we pursue it, it can be destructive we may lose our paradise.

Therefore, the restoration era was all about challenging what was conceived before, the restoration is an era that begins to challenge the innocence of the renaissance. The Renaissance era embraced humanity with all its faults and restoration did not. In other words, the renaissance argued humanity and the restoration era developed the notion of humanity. A sort of critical analysis of human behaviour.

Now if the restoration era is compared with the current time, connect it with the present context, in case a COVID-19 vaccine is finally prepared and ready to be in use, a selected few community will enjoy the privilege first as opposed to the entire world. In that case, are ideas like equality, fraternity, and liberty an illusion that humans had been chasing since the dawn of civilisation or do they really exist and are waiting for us to be found?

The readers of the satire could surely connect with the current COVID-19 situation as it can be assumed that if corona vaccine is finally prepared only a selected few community will enjoy the privilege first as opposed to the entire world. The terms equality, fraternity, and liberty are illusions that humans had been chasing since the dawn of civilisation.

Human behaviour and their minds have been constructed in such a way that the ideas of equality, fraternity, and libertymight not be chased ever, no matter how many eras come after the restoration era. Massacres like COVID-19 shall presume and the words like equality, fraternity, and liberty shall remain an illusion.

The short story, if compared with the situation currently, would be our situation if we survive COVID-19. Few years from now, the world would be much more concerned about controlling the population. Killing off old people and making a father choose, which child he wants to save would be considered to be a wise verdict. The painter draws a world which is fallacious and can only be imagined.

He knew that he would never paint again. He let his paintbrush fall to the drop-cloths below. And then he decided he had had about enough of life in the Happy Garden of Life, too, and he came slowly down from the ladder.

As he slowly came down the ladder, he gave up. His beautiful world inside the painting shall remain a happy dream. Just like the Rape of the Lock, Gullivers Travel and satires like these remain in our bookshelves after we are done with the course, we analyse the messages, the words and what not.

But the question lies, are the changes really being made? When a situation arrives, writers and free thinkers do their role in the best possible manners to make us all aware of the situation, it is up to us how we respond. Just like the muralist got down the ladder, they all do so at some point.

In the final lines, as the hostess thanks the mural, it proves how the advanced society is imposing and trying hard, barring the population of the society. Whereas, an individual in a democratic country has every right to live. Similar situations arrived in Swifts Gulliver's Travels when Gulliver was compared to an animal. The mural is no less than an animal when he was thanked. The harsh political system questions his identity, whether to be or not be?

Therefore, the responsibility of a free thinker in a time crisis is to convey the message to the whole humanity including the political world using satires and allegories. He has delivered the message, now rest depends on people and the countrys political system.

In Vonneguts 2 B R 0 2 B, the desire to create autopian world has reached a level, where its almost like a dystopian world. Where the world has collapsed into a sad depressing place. Government is controlling everyone and no one can be a human anymore. Vonnegut in the first few lines of the story showed us how perfect the postmodern world is. Whereas, at the end he enlightened us with the reality.

The whole play talks about the shallow government system, of not only the England or American but of the entire world. In a search to create a utopian world, we have created this dystopian, shallow world where, the term equality has become vague.

Even in crisis like corona virus, the entire world has proven to be disgusting. Corruption has been going on since the beginning of the perfect world and question lies for how long? No matter how many eras pass by the world will be among the fallen ones, we have lost the paradise and everyone in this world is in search of their own perfect paradise. Is the paradise going to be or not to be? Or are we all stuck in this maze, each with a story of its own, many bleak, scary stories.

Sheikh Tasmima Mrenmoi is a student of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.

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2 BR 0 2 B and the current situation of the world - newagebd.net