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    1) The document analyzes Kurt Vonnegut's short story "All the King's Horses", noting how Vonnegut uses satire and unusual expressions to convey themes of war eroding soldiers and necessary sacrifice to protect loved ones. 2) The main theme is that people shouldn't rely solely on their own talents and status, but should adapt to situations like in a game of chess, where quick adaptation to your opponent is key. 3) The story uses two main characters, Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying, who lead groups like chess pieces in a game to symbolize war, demonstrating Vonnegut's message about respecting other cultures and the costs of war.

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    Essay

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    quantumice
    881 views2 pages
    1) The document analyzes Kurt Vonnegut's short story "All the King's Horses", noting how Vonnegut uses satire and unusual expressions to convey themes of war eroding soldiers and necessary sacrifice to protect loved ones. 2) The main theme is that people shouldn't rely solely on their own talents and status, but should adapt to situations like in a game of chess, where quick adaptation to your opponent is key. 3) The story uses two main characters, Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying, who lead groups like chess pieces in a game to symbolize war, demonstrating Vonnegut's message about respecting other cultures and the costs of war.

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    1) The document analyzes Kurt Vonnegut's short story "All the King's Horses", noting how Vonnegut uses satire and unusual expressions to convey themes of war eroding soldiers and necessary sacrifice to protect loved ones. 2) The main theme is that people shouldn't rely solely on their own talents and status, but should adapt to situations like in a game of chess, where quick adaptation to your opponent is key. 3) The story uses two main characters, Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying, who lead groups like chess pieces in a game to symbolize war, demonstrating Vonnegut's message about respecting other cultures and the costs of war.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    881 views2 pages

    Essay

    Uploaded by

    quantumice
    1) The document analyzes Kurt Vonnegut's short story "All the King's Horses", noting how Vonnegut uses satire and unusual expressions to convey themes of war eroding soldiers and necessary sacrifice to protect loved ones. 2) The main theme is that people shouldn't rely solely on their own talents and status, but should adapt to situations like in a game of chess, where quick adaptation to your opponent is key. 3) The story uses two main characters, Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying, who lead groups like chess pieces in a game to symbolize war, demonstrating Vonnegut's message about respecting other cultures and the costs of war.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Miguel 1

    Andreas Miguel

    Dr. Coleman

    English 3 Honors

    2 September 2010

    A Modern Anachronism

    Authors have their own unique style to develop different tones and themes, and

    there are countless ways each author conveys his or her theme in the story. Kurt

    Vonnegut is an esteemed author of many well-known novels. He is also known for his

    collection of short stories known as Welcome to the Monkey House. One of the short

    stories called “All the King’s Horses” displays a perfect setting of suspense, and how the

    effects of war erode soldiers and their families. To do this, Vonnegut uses a satirical tone

    with hints of unusual playful expressions; by doing so, he lets readers know that many

    sacrifices are at times necessary in order to protect loved ones, just Vonnegut’s character

    Pi Ying says, “a chess game can very rarely be won . . . without sacrifices.

    The theme is that people shouldn’t rely on their own individual talents and social

    status to get themselves past obstacles in the path to their goal. Kurt Vonnegut creates his

    theme with the aid of the satirical tone in the story “All the King’s Horses”. Vonnegut is

    implying that there needs to be a point where people use their own unique abilities to

    enhance what they do for a living. The reason Vonnegut used a game of chess, instead a

    game of checkers, is for the immense magnitude of possible choices a person can make in

    the game of life. Every person has his or hers own style, making it so each player in the
    Miguel 2

    game of chess must learn quickly the style of the other person. This concept of adapting

    rapidly to the opponent is the basic theme Vonnegut clearly wants to convey in the story.

    Characters in Vonnegut’s short stories have a unique role, especially in his story

    “All the King’s Horses”. There are two main characters that develop the tone of sarcasm

    and cynicism. Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying are two leaders of their own respective groups

    armed to play a game of chess, which symbolizes two armies in battle. Although Pi Ying

    uses life-sized chess pieces, Colonel Kelly’s family and the soldiers under his command

    must listen to the colonel’s orders like pawns. Pi Ying’s second in command is Major

    Barzov, who makes a point, “ He’ll learn to be a pawn yet . . . It’s and Oriental skill

    Americans could do well to learn for the days ahead, eh?” (99). This quote adds a

    satirical tone as Kelly is continually losing soldiers literally. Vonnegut chose this tone

    because he wanted to criticize the lack of respect some people have towards international

    cultures or at least the misunderstanding.

    “All the King’s Horses” brings the concept of reality to the reader’s attention.

    Vonnegut wants to make sure his readers of future generations don’t take family and their

    prized possessions for granted. Work is a must as technology advances to engulf the

    “archaic” ways of doing tasks. But some tasks require the archaic work ethic in order to

    master the task such as in the classic game of chess. Like Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying,

    people must work efficiently to earn possessions and a loving family.

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