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“He was so rumpled, so still and colorless as to be virtually invisible. His camouflage was perfect, since the waiting room had a disorderly and demoralized air, too.”

The description of Wehling as invisible is repeated when Wehling calls himself invisible. Rumpled and colorless can also be used to describe the drop cloth the painter later states is a better representation of life. The description of Wehling aligns with the waiting room itself, and highlights Wehling’s lack of individuality within the world of the story as well as his demoralized state.

“Never, never, never—not even in medieval Holland nor old Japan—had a garden been more formal, been better tended. Every plant had all the loam, light, water, air and nourishment it could use.”

The repetition of never emphasizes the extraordinary nature of the garden and highlights its fiction. Such a garden cannot exist. As an extension, such a society cannot exist. Dystopia/Utopia strips humanity of messiness and, as a result, stops people from truly living.

“The painter gestured at a foul dropcloth. ‘There’s a good picture of it,’ he said. ‘Frame that, and you’ll have a picture a damn sight more honest than this one.’”

Vonnegut explicitly connects the motif of mess to a description of life in the world of the story. The motif of mess repeats in the description of Wehling as well as the orderly’s concern about who will clean up the painter’s body if the painter decides to kill himself. The drop cloth serves as a contrast to the ideal of the mural— reality, not the perfect mural, is messy and unpredictable.

“‘To be or not to be’ was the telephone number of the municipal gas chambers of the Federal Bureau of Termination.”

This is the first time that the meaning of the title is revealed. It is a direct allusion to Hamlet and serves to underscore the primary choice that everyone in this society has. By using assisted suicide, this society offers a clean and organized method of death that defies the messiness of life. Dystopias/Utopias often feature societies “playing God” in many ways, and controlling death in this way is a signifier of the genre.

“The world could do with a good deal more mess, if you ask me.”

The painter’s argument that the world could do with a little more mess foreshadows the mess that Wehling will make when he kills Dr. Hitz, Duncan, and himself. It also highlights the suppression of mess and asks the reader to think about the cost of that suppression.

“The woman had a lot of facial hair—an unmistakable mustache, in fact. A curious thing about gas-chamber hostesses was that, no matter how lovely and feminine they were when recruited, they all sprouted mustaches within five years or so.”

This dated, misogynistic trope is reflective of the time period in which Vonnegut wrote the story. The trope insinuates a correlation between beauty and morality, satirically stating that women lose their more feminine traits when working for the Bureau, which in this story represents an eerily perfect but morally corrupt society.

“‘Who doesn’t admire him?’ she said, worshiping the portrait of Hitz. It was the portrait of a tanned, white-haired, omnipotent Zeus, two hundred and forty years old. ‘Who doesn’t admire him?’ she said again. ‘He was responsible for setting up the very first gas chamber in Chicago.’”

The use of hyperbole, or exaggeration, to describe Dr. Hitz as an omnipotent Zeus highlights the topsy-turvy values of the world the characters inhabit. It also gestures to the function of Dr. Hitz as a god with the power to give and take life—demonstrating a necessary imbalance of power within the world, though citizens like Wehling have the illusion of choice within the system.

“The law said that no newborn child could survive unless the parents of the child could find someone who would volunteer to die. Triplets, if they were all to live, called for three volunteers.”

This is the first time that the rules of the world are clearly articulated. This description does not appear until the end of the story. The foreshadowing in both the image of the mural and the lyrics of the pop song make the otherwise sterile description emotionally impactful.

“‘What man in my shoes wouldn’t be happy?’ said Wehling. He gestured with his hands to symbolize care-free simplicity. ‘All I have to do is pick out which one of the triplets is going to live, then deliver my maternal grandfather to the Happy Hooligan, and come back here with a receipt.’”

Vonnegut uses verbal irony to demonstrate the absurdity of the world the characters inhabit. In what is supposed to be a “perfect” society, the dilemma Wehling faces is anything but perfect. His “care-free simplicity” as he discusses the horrific things he has to do shows Wehling’s sarcasm as he struggles to cope with something he finds to be morally corrupt.

“‘In the year 2000,’ said Dr. Hitz, ‘before scientists stepped in and laid down the law, there wasn't even enough drinking water to go around, and nothing to eat but sea-weed—and still people insisted on their right to reproduce like jackrabbits. And their right, if possible, to live forever.’”

This is the primary defense for euthanasia. The use of colloquialisms like “reproduce like jackrabbits” and Dr. Hitz’s incredulity at people’s insistence to procreate infantilizes people and suggests that people are not responsible enough to make good choices. This is often the argument used to justify authoritarian regimes and other societies of control.

“‘I wish people wouldn’t call it “the Catbox,” and things like that,’ she said. ‘It gives people the wrong impression.’”

Duncan’s squeamishness about the use of correct terminology underscores the function of bureaucratic terms. The epithets, though they are creative and artful, speak the truth about what euthanasia is. The formal term, which Duncan prefers, sanitizes the experience and allows her to continue to believe that it is a purely good service.

“And then he shot Leora Duncan. ‘It’s only death,’ he said to her as she fell. ‘There! Room for two.’”

Wehling states the main idea behind euthanasia when he kills Duncan. “It’s only death” conceptually allows for population control. In resolving Wehling’s issue and the narrative so rapidly, Vonnegut juxtaposes the reality of murder and the “utopic” world that glorifies Sacrifice. This is also an example of three ironies in one sentence: verbal, dramatic, and cosmic.

“He knew that he would never paint again. He let his paintbrush fall to the drop-cloths below. And then he decided he had had about enough of life in the Happy Garden of Life, too, and he came slowly down from the ladder.”

The painter’s decision to exit the Happy Garden of Life, both to stop painting it and to kill himself, signifies the end of the world the characters inhabit. Wehling reveals the reality behind the Happy Garden of Life through his actions, and the painter, though he recognized it before, can no longer exist in the world now that its reality is articulated through action.