"Nothing Sacred, Nothing Gained: Deprogramming and Community in Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions"

Abstract

This article analyzes the combination of narrative techniques that make up Breakfast of Champions' unique style and substance. Taking its cue from the novel's prologue, the article examines Vonnegut's use of defamiliarized diction, bricolage, metafiction, and self-conscious narration. These elements combine to lament the lack of a community sensibility in Vonnegut's America, and to call attention to the social "programming" that has derailed the search for the American Dream.