The Madness of Money, Politics and Reality in Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Money has a transformative power. Where money is involved, morals, values and motives can become amazingly flexible: behaviour which may otherwise be recognised as cold, ruthless or corrupt is described as realistic, bold or clever. In effect, money has come to not only change the way one lives, but the way one views oneself: how much money one has, and what one is able to buy, has widely come to define who one is. An obsession with wealth can be identified as a kind of madness: just what one actually desires when desiring money is unclear, and yet many people will go to extreme lengths to obtain and secure it. Wealth may bring power, influence, prestige, security and the illusion of invulnerability, but then what do these situations, in turn, represent a desire for?
The obsession with wealth, and the manipulative, devious and opportunistic behaviour people will engage in to obtain it for themselves, serves as the main focus of Kurt Vonnegut’s, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Money may be a “leading character” within the novel, but madness is the central theme, and Vonnegut presents the apparent insanity of the millionaire protagonist, Eliot Rosewater, against the backdrop of the collective madness of the nation. But what is madness? The concept is so ambiguous it can be manipulated to suit almost any situation or purpose, including financial and political gain. As such, this paper will examine the interplay of wealth, madness and identity within God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. As the novel focuses on the madness that seemingly goes hand-in-hand with excessive wealth, the key question becomes: how does money influence the way in which people view, and treat, one another?
I completed my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the University of Western Sydney. For my thesis I explored the way in which the experience of madness is conveyed in the poetry of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. I am currently in the first year of my PhD.