In Kurt Vonnegut’s 1959 novel, The Sirens of Titan, he stresses the importance of perceiving purpose in one’s life while criticizing humanity for expecting a singular definitive answer to the meaning of life. Amidst this idea, lies Vonnegut’s comment on humanity’s conformity and lack of freewill, despite the inherent tendency to believe in and treasure the idea of their freewill. Almost every character in the novel is somehow searching for meaning in life, or the universe. While the novel answers the meaning of human life in the universe of the story, it focuses on the idea that there is no inherent or intrinsic purpose to life, merely an individual search to satisfy oneself. While the plot depicts an outside force’s tight influence over all of human history, the normality of perceiving one’s own freewill is also emphasized.

The Sirens of Titan tells the story of a very wealthy and very lucky young man, named Constant, who is manipulated into enlisting in the Martian Army by a man named Rumfoord. Rumfoord is an aristocrat who accidentally flew his private spaceship, with his dog, through a location in space known as a chrono-synclastic infundibulum. Ever since that happened, the two of them have been able to see the future/past, read minds, and materialize/dematerialize in different spots around the universe on a regular schedule.  Both Constant and Beatrice, Rumfoord’s wife, are cleverly manipulated into conceiving a child (Chrono) and traveling to Mars where their minds are erased and they are separated. After the Martians invade Earth, they are slaughtered as a result of unpreparedness for modern human weaponry. This was part of Rumfoord’s plan; he uses the guilt of the humans as a weakness making them vulnerable to manipulation. This is when he reveals his new religion, teaching that God is indifferent to human existence and plays no part in luck. Constant, stuck on Mercury with his partner Boaz, finds a way to escape by spaceship about three years later. When he leaves for Earth, he arrives in the yard of one of Rumfoord’s new churches and is made a fool of with Beatrice and Chrono, whose identities are revealed. The three of them are exiled to Titan (a moon of Saturn) by means of one-way spaceship. When they arrive it is revealed to them that Rumfoord himself was also being manipulated by the inhabitants of a planet called Tralfamadore. The only other inhabitant of Titan is Salo, a Tralfamadorian robot. Salo crash landed on Titan trying to get as far as he could with a message to deliver to a distant population. Tralfamadorians have the ability to cast the control through the universe at three times the speed of light. This is the skill they used to get a replacement piece for Salo’s ship over to him on Titan. It becomes clear that the entire history of human life on Earth has been manipulated and controlled by Tralfamadorians. The culmination of such influence appears to simply be the small metal lucky charm that Chrono has possessed since finding it when he grew up on Mars. Rumfoord disappears for good due to solar flaring, and Salo disassembles himself in sorrow, as the two had become very close friends.

The characters Constant, Boaz, and Beatrice each demonstrate their own transformation during the novel and find a purpose to their own lives. Toward the end of his life, after the passing of Beatrice, Constant finds peace with the control exerted over his life by deciding that “a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved” (320). This realization is the resolution to Constant’s character arc, leaving him a transformed man with complex morality and self-understanding that could not have been capable of at the beginning. After Boaz and Constant fight over Constant’s destruction of the remote that allowed Boaz to control him, Boaz reaches the climax of his own character arc. It is a momentous moment for Boaz who has demonstrated twisted pleasure in controlling others for quite some time. “Not to be lonely, not to be scared—Boaz had decided that those were the important things in life” (185). From this time on, Boaz exemplifies humbled morals and becomes a friend of Constant’s. When Constant finds out how to escape Mercury, Boaz remains behind because he has found valuable meaning in his life simply by taking care of the animals that live in the caves and feed off of vibrations. While discussing her book with Constant, Beatrice comes to the self-satisfying conclusion that “the worst thing that could happen to anybody, would be to not be used for anything by anybody” (317). This shows the idea that allows Beatrice to come to terms with the fact that none of her life has been in her control. This is echoed later when Beatrice thanks Constant for using her, shortly before her death. Each of these three characters found a purpose to their life, and as a result found satisfaction and peace.

The novel sends a clear message criticizing human civilization for concerning itself with discovering a simple and perfect solution to the meaning of all life. Vonnegut uses the legend of how the first Tralfamadorian was created as an allegory of his predictions for humanity. Salo relays the legend, explaining how the original Tralfamadorian creatures ended up becoming overrun by the machines they created. He says that the “poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others” (279). This obsession with finding a purpose is common within society and exemplified by many in the book. Despite the fact that the Tralfamadorian machines have coexisted in a stable and seemingly permanent government for hundreds of millions of years, the descent of the original inhabitants to being slaughtered by their creations is surely an intended warning message. These same concerns are later referred to in the description of one of the sculptures Salo carved to pass his time on Titan while watching Earth through his spaceship monitor. The statue is described as appearing “above the beastly concerns of mankind.” (294). Vonnegut also insults human mentality through the narrator’s description of Salo’s interest in humans, stating that “Earthlings behaved at all times as though there were a big eye in the sky,” and that “the big eye was the only audience that Earthlings really cared about” (281). This notion of constantly trying to appease some higher being is a common human trait. The expectation to find simple answers to complex questions, as well as the instinct to appeal to a greater being, are denounced by Vonnegut as he deems them counterproductive and pathetic.

Vonnegut also uses the novel to suggest that humanity lacks freewill, and therefore luck and responsibility. In the story, Rumfoord explains to Constant, Beatrice, and Chrono that “everything that every Earthling has ever done has been warped,” it was planned and influenced for a specific purpose by another planet running on a much longer timescale than Earthlings (302). As a result, these characters struggle with the fact that they haven’t had true freewill their entire life. Not only that, but they also struggle with the fact that the entire Earth has been completely manipulated for the past 200 thousand years with the relatively trivial purpose of helping an alien machine deliver a message somewhere past our solar system, a message they later find out to be ‘Greetings’. The intention of this plot line is not literal, of course, but a comment on humanity. Vonnegut uses alien mind control as a metaphor for the systematic influence of human society, essentially having one’s path in life predetermined by the culture in which they are raised. The final words of the book (excluding the epilogue) come after Salo disassembles himself in sorrow. Chrono decides to leave his lucky charm (Salo’s replacement piece) in the pieces of Salo, because “the magical forces of the universe would put everything back together again. They always did” (307). This implies an inherent natural state or resolution that is destined to occur. While predestination is a recurring motif throughout the novel, the desperate human necessity to defend and value one’s freewill is also clearly depicted. Rumfoord demonstrates this point when he explains, “I take a certain pride, no matter how foolishly mistaken that pride may be, in making my own decisions for my own reasons” (290). It is natural for humans to believe in their own unlimited choice, but the impact that social and cultural pressures play on humans inhibits our freewill.

Kurt Vonnegut answers the question of the meaning of life with The Sirens of Titan, proclaiming that it is merely a perception of purpose that is achieved on a personal and individual level. Not only this, but he reprimands society for their expectations. Additionally, he parallels conformity in humanity to predestination. A further question would be why Vonnegut chose to communicate the points that he did given the context of his life.

Bibliography:

Vonnegut, Kurt. The Sirens of Titan. New York: Delacorte Press, 1959. Print.