A Critical Interpretation of Vonnegut’s Jailbird: An Unceasing Quest for Justice

Abstract

This paper examines the meaning of ‘becoming a jailbird’ through the behaviors of Starbuck in Vonnegut’s Jailbird. Starbuck, a Harvard graduate, works as an official in the Nixon administration. He is then summoned as a Watergate co-conspirator and ends up going to jail. When he is released from the prison, he happens to meet his first lover, a shopping bag-lady and president of RAMJAC and is finally changed by her mercy and good will, and is freed from his pessimistic view and despair. But later, in the face of Kathleen’s sudden death, he conceals her will, despite her testament, and goes to jail. As a result, this delays the collapse of RAMJAC and helps the poor and people in need. Before he returns to the prison, he fulfills his self-bestowed responsibility as did Billy of Slaughterhouse-Five, by prescribing corrective lenses for Earthlings thanks to his trip to Tralfamadore. When Starbuck tries to save many people from the corrupted society and the greed of capitalistic system, it shows his spirit of sublimity and sacrifice. At his trial, he invokes the Sermon on the Mount in his unceasing quest for justice. Consequently, Vonnegut seeks justice as a realizable goal through the behaviors of jailbirds such as Starbuck and Trout. Through Jailbird, a mixture of fictionality and historical fabrication, Vonnegut lets us know that we need the love of mankind in order to coexist and realize peace and justice in this absurd world.