2 B R 0 2 B

Irony is used heavily throughout the story. Vonnegut begins the story with verbal irony—when someone says one thing but means the opposite. The narrator says, “Everything was perfectly swell” (Paragraph 1). Meanwhile, Wehling must decide whether to kill his children, his grandfather, or someone else. Wehling also uses verbal irony when he says, “Edward K. Wehling, Jr., is the name of the happy father-to-be,” and when he says “hooray” in response to the information that his children have been born (Paragraph 76).

Situational irony is when something happens that is different than what is expected. For instance, Wehling shoots Dr. Hitz, Duncan, and himself rather than kill his grandfather and children, as the reader has been led to expect. Similarly, the painter chooses to use the hotline rather than shoot himself with the revolver. These changes in the narrative’s course have the potential to shock the reader, but they also show that humanity finds a way to defy control and defy the expected, even in such a well-developed, “perfect” society.

Finally, Vonnegut also employs cosmic irony. Cosmic irony is when the universe seems to have a sense of humor. In this case, the death of Dr. Hitz fits into cosmic irony because he started the first euthanasia facility in Chicago, is an ardent advocate of population control, and is killed in service of his own ideas.

Vonnegut uses each type of irony to highlight the absurdity of the world of the story and in turn to critique it.

Vonnegut utilizes different types of allusion throughout the story. Allusion is a literary device that calls something to mind without explicitly mentioning it. There are several allusions throughout the story. “2 B R 0 2 B” alludes to Hamlet. Dr. Hitz’s German name in combination with the gas chambers as the method of euthanasia refer to Nazi Germany and the gas chambers used to execute Jewish people, Black people, gay people, people with disabilities, and other minorities. The eagle as a symbol of the bureau is an allusion to empire, both to the United States and to Germany. Each allusion works to highlight and remind the reader of the dangers of a society that embraces population control.