ere forced into work as corpse carriers (Bleiler, 851). One of Vonnegut's themes to his
             short stories is how some of them are depressing.
             One of the main influences to this them was the allied fire bombing of Dresden.
             At age 22, he was captured at the Battle of the Bulge (Houston, 2). This made Vonnegut
             very upset which became a key influence to using depression as a theme in his short
             Throughout his life Vonnegut has lived through many tragic family deaths. At 22,
             Vonnegut handled the fact that his mother committed suicide because of the families
             financial losses during The Great Depression. How she was also unable to regain any of
             the family's wealth (Houston, 2). His only sister, five years older than Vonneget is died
             of cancer when she was forty (Vonnegut, IX).
             His family also had income problems, which was a primary result of The Great
             Depression (Houston, 2). Kurt Vonnegut also faced severe stresses from society.
             Vonnegut disliked the war going on in Germany, and he really didn't want to be a
             Science Fiction is the topic of most of his short stories. Those who claim
             Vonnegut as a science fiction writer do not really even know how he should be treated.
             He draws heavily upon aspects of loneliness, as in "Next Door". He also draws heavily
             upon depression as in "The Lie". It is also true that he treats these subjects very
             differently from that of an average science fiction writer (Bleiler, 854).
             Kurt Vonnegut's brother, who is eight years older than he is, was a successful
             ...