Quote of the book:
“Nobody today is nearly smart enough to make the sorts of weapons even the poorest nations had a million years ago. Yes, and they were being used all the time. During my lifetime, there wasn’t a day when, somewhere on the planet, there weren’t at least three wars going on. And the Law of Natural Selection was powerless to respond to such new technologies. No female of any species, unless maybe she was a rhinoceros, could expect to give birth to a baby who was fireproof, bombproof, or bulletproof” ( 89).
Almost all of Kurt Vonnegut’s writings are an investigation and commentary on human behavior, and the quote above embodies the message that the author wanted to convey in his novel Galapagos. The novel is narrated by a ghost who tells the story a million years after the events in Galapagos have taken place. The story tells the tale of the last survivors of the human race who are stuck in a deserted island, after the entire world has become destroyed by nuclear weapons. Vonnegut comments that it was the “big brains” of the world that led to the demise of humanity because their brains perpetuated them to develop new technologies that would eventually be used for destruction and war. The quote above illustrates how the knowledge of man has led to the idea that there wasn’t a day that passed by when “there weren’t at least three wars going on”. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut comments on how our human nature to constantly develop new technologies and progress, can lead to our own demise. In a sense, much of the novel points to the notion that ‘we are too smart for our own good’. The most intelligent survivors, wealthy businessman and computer software whiz, are the first to die. Vonnegut himself writes this within the first few pages of the novel to illustrate how one’s survival does not necessarily depend on how big your brain is.
One of the most important themes of the novel is that humanity is progressing much faster than nature should allow us to progress. Vonnegut incorporates many Darwinian principles, such as the Law of Natural Selection to showcase the proper way in which humans should be evolving. As seen in the quote, humans should adapt to the laws of nature rather than develop technologies that do not allow us to naturally be prepared for them. There is no species on Earth that could naturally adapt to the man-made guns, bombs, and other technologies, because those items are not found naturally in the environment. The human brain has advanced too quickly for the human body to physically protect itself against the technological predators that our brains have developed ourselves. This is why, the survivors in Galapagos, begin to adapt naturally to their surroundings, which allows their brains to shrink. Over the course of a million years since what seemed to be the Apocalypse, humans have evolved and morphed into a new species with a small brain, fur, beaks, and flippers. Humans of the future now do not even have the intelligence to develop technologies because they physically cannot do so. Do to their natural adaptation, the new human race is “innocent and relaxed now, all because evolution took their hands away” (113). The essence of the novel is captured by this quote and the quote above, because they showcase message within Vonnegut’s words
Connections:
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been reading One Hundred Years of Solitude and Galapagos. The characters in Galapagos survive the Great Apocalypse because they just so happen to be on a boat, similar to Noah’s Ark, that allowed them to land on an island. The flood in One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the nuclear bomb in Galapagos, both served as a catalyst for the world to start anew. The Earth was rid of the past’s evils, either washed away or blown up. The survivors are then confined to a small island away from the mainland, much is quite similar to the town of Macondo. Both places are isolated from the mainland, Galapagos an island, while Macondo is a peninsula. In addition, both bare resemblance to the Garden of Eden in the Creation Story. In reference to the island in Galapgaos, Vonnegut writes, “Then again it is so peaceful here, why would anybody want to live on the mainland? Every island has become an ideal place to raise children, with waving coconuts palms and broad white beaches – and limpid blue lagoons” (113). The island that the survivors were on was like a paradise. There was still a sense of innocence and untouched vegetation and land that made it such a haven for its inhabitants. There is however a difference between the people of Macondo and the descendents of the survivors in Galapgos. A majority of the Buendia family wanted to go towards exploration and be exposed to what the outside world has to offer. In contrast, the Galapagos survivor descendents choose not to evolve to humans and go towards the mainland. “If people can swim as fast and far as fur seals now, what is to prevent their swimming all the way back to the mainland, whence their ancestors came? Answer: nothing”(113). There is nothing that stands between the new human race to go back to the mainland, however they choose to live in simplicity, free from the complexities that would arise in the mainland. simultaneously, and couldn’t help but notice the striking similarities between the novel’s themes and storylines. Both novels are centralized around the themes of the pitfalls of modern technology and how it can corrupt a population. The people of Macondo began to spiral into destruction and succumb to temptation when they became exposed to the outside world. The people became tainted with the new innovations and ideas, which helped influence the thirty two wars of Colonel Aureliano Buendia. This mirrored the world that Vonnegut was describing before modern technology destroyed the human population. Modern technology has destroyed an essence of what it meant to be human. People were becoming too focused on the latest science and inventions, that much like Jose Arcadio Buendia, they lost sight of their humanity. Another way in which the two novels are similar are their biblical references and themes. Both novels bare resemblance to the Creation Story and the tale of Noah’s Ark. In
Much like Gabriel Garcia Marquez based One Hundred Years of Solitude on the history of Colombia, Vonnegut based the context of Galapagos on the Latin American Debt Crisis in the 1980s. In the 1980s, many countries in Latin America had a foreign debt that exceeded their own earning power which caused an economic crisis in nations like Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, etc. In Galapagos, Vonnegut uses Ecuador as a backdrop of the event. “Ecuador…could not beign to feed its nin million people. It was bankrupt, and so could no longer buy food from countries with plenty of topsoil…and the people were beginning to starve to death” (15). Vonnegut includes three Ecuadorian sisters as characters in the novel, who embody the desperation that the nation was in. The sisters themselves were known to be cannibalistic out of desperation and hunger. Although this portrayal is quite extreme, it is seemed very characteristic of Vonnegut. He often utilizes his dark humor in order to bring light his message; which in this case regarded the extremity of the situation in Latin American countries.
One of the more interesting connections that I drew from Galapagos and from modern topics today, was a commentary on abortion. Abortion is often one of the most heated debates in politics and society, because of its implications about human life, stem cell research, etc. In the novel however, the concept of abortion is treated with dark humor and brings to light Vonnegut’s own opinion about the matter. “A million years ago, there were passionate arguments about whether it was right or wrong for people to use mechanical means to keep sperm from fertilizing ova or to dislodge fertilized ova from the uteri – in order to keep the number of people from exceeding the food supply. That problem is taken care of nowadays, without anybody’s having to do anything unnatural. Killer whales and sharks the human population nice and manageable, and nobody starves” (74). To, it seems that Vonnegut believes abortion and birth control to be in some ways, a method of population control. Whether or not Vonnegut agrees with abortion or not is unclear and unimportant. What is more significant, is the belief that there shouldn’t even be a need for artificial population control. If humans were originally living within their own means, then the natural course of the environment should control the human population, much like it controls animal and plant populations. Within nature, there is a system that allows there not to be overpopulation and therefore a food shortage. In Galapagos, this same principle is once instilled within the new human population, because sharks and killer whales are Mother Nature’s way of population control.
Visual Representation:
The above photo showcases a new version of the “Evolution of Man” that encompasses the evolution of the human population within the novel. Man has evolved from the animal world to evolving back into an animal because of our actions. The figure in the middle depicts the big-brained man that Vonnegut wanted to portray in his novel. He carries a rifle and a bloodied shovel, which showcases the violent nature that humans gave in to. Through our evolution, the human brain has helped mankind in making weapons to use for violence. “When I was alive, I often received advice from my own big brain, which in terms of my survival, or the survival of the human race, for that matter, can be charitably described as questionable. Example: It had me join the United States Marines and go fight in Vietnam. Thanks a log Big Brain” (19). Here Vonnegut showcases how the evolution of man’s brain has led him to go into war, a notion that is embodied by the figure in the center. The figure to right, (the fat man holding the McDonald’s bag and drink), showcases what our big brains have led us to become. We not only become violent, but we also become greedy and gluttonous. Then, eventually as the natural course of human kind continues, humans will no longer exist, but rather revert back to the course of nature and primitiveness. Vonnegut hints at the future of human kind in Galapagos, describing that if our actions continue, then we will no longer be human, but rather furry animals who fish with beaks.
Questions:
1. What significance does the title and place of Galapagos have in relation to the themes of the novel?
2. Why did Vonnegut choose certain traits for each character? What significance does this have to the theme of Natural selection?
3. Where do you think Vonnegut gained inspiration for the disease that becomes a pandemic in the novel? (Think about the context of world health and new diseases in the 1980s)
4. In what ways does Galapagos bare resemblance to Vonnegut’s other novels?
a. What themes, symbols, literary devices are similar?
5. Why does Vonnegut use an asterisk near a character’s name to foreshadow their death?
a. Why would the author want to tell the reader beforehand that a character is going to die?
Reflection:
Once again, Vonnegut does not disappoint. Galapagos was true to the author’s unique writing style and narrative. It included much of the dark humor and witty interjections that I love most about Vonnegut. I quite enjoyed the novel as a whole, and there were many times where I full out laughed. One of my favorite portions in the novel was an interview between the Captain of the Bahia de Darwin (the boat that the survivors were on) and Jimmy Carson on the Tonight Show. This was yet another one of Vonnegut’s literary devices that keep me interested as a reader.
In addition, the author continues to play with themes that investigate and comment upon the human behavior in order for readers to see the flaws of humanity, and try to take action. This however, is something that I sometimes find as a flaw within the novel. Although it is a style of Vonnegut’s to be somewhat blunt about his message within the book, he was riding a fine line between naturally showcasing the themes and being preachy. Although I loved his use of “big brain” comments, it was almost too much. Even if Vonnegut hadn’t used those terms over and over, the novel itself would have gotten the same message across to the reader. Also, even though I enjoyed the novel, it doesn’t have the same feel or pizzazz as his other novels that I’ve read. The writing itself is not up to the level of Cat’s Cradle or Breakfast of Champions, despite the fact that the style is the same. I believe this is due to the plot outline itself. There is a disconnect between some of the characters in Galapagos and the reader. I cannot relate as much to James Wait in Galapagos than I can to Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five.
Despite some of its flaws, any fan of Vonnegut is sure to love Galapagos. I myself quite enjoyed it because it still had much of the characteristic stylings of Vonnegut while incorporating a sense of biology. Even if a reader were not a Vonnegut fan, this novel would still be a good introduction to the author’s writing, and just as the last words of the novel go, “You’ll learn, you’ll learn,”, one will learn to love Vonnegut (184).
