Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Kurt Vonnegut

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Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Kurt
Vonnegut
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Theme

• The Detrimental Effects of Living in a Society
  Controlled by a Greedy Faction

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Plot Overview

• The setting is 2158 A.D. and the Schwartz family
  is at the mercy of Gramps, a nearly 200 year old
  elderly man.
•  The family lives in one apartment and tries to
  please Gramps, but secretly wonder when he will
  cease living and hope for his final day to come
  as soon as possible.
• Gramps threatens his family of their removal from
  the family will whenever anyone tries to rebel
  against his authority.
•  Anti-gerasone causes the elders of
  the society to rule the community, and increases
  the over-population problem.  
• Ironically, Em, Lou, and the rest of the family
  find peace and solitude in jail where they can
  escape the confined life they lived with Gramps.

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Important Quotes

• "Life was good.  He could hardly wait to see what
  was going to happen next. pg 331
• From Gramps Schwartz's point of view.
•  Shows the abuse of the anti-gerasone among the
  elderly.
•  Despite being over 200 years old, Gramps still
  wants to live as long as he can.
•  He is living for himself and doesn't care for
  his family. He greedily chooses to stay on Earth
  as long as he can in spite of his family.
• Also it is puzzling that his idea of a "good"
  life is just living and being a bother to his
  family.

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Important Quotes

• "Sometimes I wish folks just up and died regular
  as clockwork, without anything to say about
  it, instead of deciding themselves how long
  they're going to stay around." pg 317 Emerald
• Conveys the family's concern about Gramps and
  elders in general.  The younger generation is
  concerned how the old get to decide their own
  life and be able to live longer.  They abuse
  anti-gerasone and do not care about the problems,
  the youth are restricted of their resources and
  want their independence.

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Characterization

• Gramps
• selfish, greedy, easily-irritated, impulsive,
  old, no concern for his family
• "wrinkled", "head of the family
• Emerald
• Optimistic, honest, says what everyone else is
  thinking, opinionated
• I dont guess I could ever bring myself to
  dilute his anti-gerasone or anything like that
  but gosh

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Symbolism

• Anti-gerasone- a clutch to keep living,
  necessity, greed
• Central point of all problems in society. It
  shows how when given an option to benefit either
  ourselves or society, we choose ourselves.
  Although the elderly realize they should die so
  that the youth can live life to the fullest, they
  stubbornly insist on living decades longer than
  they were ever meant to live
• The use of technology that cripples society,
  rather than benefits it
• Too much of a good thing

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Symbolism

• day bed- independence, freedom, goals in life
• Gramps purposely causes problems by creating a
  competition over the day bed amongst the family
• The day bed is the only spark of light and its
  temporary because its always given away to
  another member of the family in a short period of
  time
• It serves as a reminder of the old days back
  when the older family members could remember a
  life where each person had suffice resources.

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Irony

• Jail
• Desired place to be. People have lawyers to get
  them more time in jail rather than to get them
  out of jail as soon as possible
• Sometimes I get so mad, I feel like just up and
  diluting his anti-gerasone, said Em.Thatd be
  against Nature, Em, said Lou
• Getting rid of anti-gerasone which has expanded
  life against what is naturally possible is
  against nature. Anti-gerasone itself is against
  nature.
• Anti-Gerasone
• Meant to help society by increasing life but has
  actually crippled a society because it has
  limited resources available and made life
  intolerable for the younger generations.