Interpretive Reading

Once you have read “2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., (FIND IT ATTACHED) please think about the story and respond to the following questions. Your answers don’t have to be correct, but you do have to support your ideas with good reasoning and references to the story (this means you will have to quote and/or summarize parts of the story in some of your answers). Have fun, and respond to each other so that through conversation we can all learn to appreciate the story in new ways.

The reason for the existence of the Federal Bureau of Termination is that, left to themselves, people would overpopulate the earth, creating famine and other intolerable conditions. The solution the society has opted for in this story is that the government is in control of who dies and when, and to some degree, how.

1. Do you believe there are other, better solutions than granting the government ultimate power over life and death?

2. Do you believe the government’s solution is an equitable, fair, sensible one or something else? Why?

3. So often dystopian literature asks what the limits of government control should be and how much government control should be allowed to encroach on individual liberty. How is the painter asserting his individual liberty at the end of the story?

4. Would having a world with no sickness, aging, death, or other ills be worth sacrificing some individuality? Where would you draw the line?

Task: Create a new discussion topic addressing each part of the prompt in full. Your initial thread should be 2-3 paragraphs in length (300 words) and provide evidence (using MLA style) from course-assigned materials when directed