“Mother Night” dramatises the power of propaganda
Kurt Vonnegut’s novel points up the role of language in wartime
“This is the only story of mine whose moral I know,” wrote Kurt Vonnegut of “Mother Night”. First published in 1961, his novel takes the form of a fictional memoir; the narrator, Howard W. Campbell junior, reflects on his experience as a double-agent in the second world war. The tale’s theme, as the author saw it, was that “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “War and words”
Culture June 18th 2022
From the June 18th 2022 edition
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