30 pages • 1 hour read
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.Welcome to the Monkey House
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Colors
Content Warning: The story discusses suicide and contains depictions of rape and group violence against a single person.
Colors act as symbols of loss throughout “Welcome to the Monkey House.” Purple is meant to be a color of vitality and wealth, and yet the purple roofs of the suicide parlors and purple stockings of the suicide nurses represent the loss of natural death and respect for life. White is a color of purity, which is likely why the suicide hostesses wear white lipstick, and yet the white creates a porcelain doll appearance, indicating the loss of comfort in death, highlighted by the bloodless sexuality of the hostesses. The removal of the makeup during the bathing ritual, too, is symbolic of rebirth. Green is a color of life and health, and yet the Barcaloungers the suicide parlor patrons die on are green and the room they die in is “lemon-yellow” (34). Their last meal comes from beneath an “orange roof” (34). Ironically, yellow and orange are generally cheerful colors, and the word lemon indicates freshness and life. Blue, as a color, often represents freedom, and yet the blue pills that eliminate freedom create blue urine, indicating that even bodily fluids are no longer natural in this world. When Nancy is taken to the museum, the natural landmarks of grass, ocean, and sand are replaced by green, blue, and beige cement, indicating the loss of nature.
Poetry
All of the poems and songs at the beginning of the story, vulgar as they may be, act as motifs to point out what has gone wrong in this society. The first letter Nancy receives has a song in it that speaks of the simple joys of courting. The narrator in the song and his beloved are fondling the statues like children might. The crux of the second verse, “If Sherman’s horse can take it, so can you” (34), indicates that the female lover might be protesting being grabbed the same way they’re grabbing the statues. However, the song’s meaning is different in this future where no one could feel such sensations. The upbeat and silly song, therefore, becomes slightly depressing.
The next poem is the one Nancy reads when Pete and Mary leave. The colors in it denote the futility of the present human condition and the distressing need for suicide parlors to bring completion. Both the song and the poem are light in delivery but woeful in meaning. Billy also recites a poem to Nancy in how he wishes to be described to the police, which reveals to the reader why none of the previous suicide nurses have described him the same. However, the poem still provides suspense as to why the nurses would repeat this description when they see what he looks like. All the poems at the beginning, especially the one read over the phone, which is crass and suggests an incorrect view of Billy’s intentions (he does not, in fact, wish to increase the population), are contrasted with the poem at the end, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, which is still one of the most referenced and reverent love poems: “How do I love thee, let me count the ways” (50). The four lines Billy reads aloud speak to the pinnacle of what love and connection are meant to bring to the human soul. The poem acts as a possible balm to the previous poems, which brings empathy and humanity to Billy and his cause, symbolizing what Nancy could have if she is willing to relinquish her former illusions.
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By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
