Vonnegut's Omniscient Narrator

I have just started reading the novel Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut.  So far, it is just about the meeting of two interesting men, Dwayne Hoover, a Pontiac dealer, and Kilgore Trout, an aging writer.  The narrator has been setting the scene for the story by providing information about the planet Earth and their country, The United States of America.  I think that Vonnegut uses the narrator to be his own voice and provide his opinions about the story and the topics he discusses.

            I think that Vonnegut’s choice of narrator is very interesting.  He uses an omniscient narrator, meaning that they are all-knowing, who gives the reader information about the story, like a narrator should, but then he also points out everything wrong with it.  For example, after writing the national anthem of the U.S. the narrator says, “…the nation Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout belonged to was the only one with a nation anthem which was gibberish sprinkled with question marks.”  Usually the narrator just is there to move the story along, however the narrator in Breakfast of Champions progresses the story but also points out everything wrong with the planet and the U.S.  I think that Vonnegut made this choice for the narrator so Vonnegut could provide his own opinions about America and the world.

            The author of a book always writes to share a message or an opinion that can be related to this world and the reader.  Writers always write for a reason.  Its not because it is fun to write, but because they have a message to share with the world or they see something wrong with it that they want to fix.  This is usually through the change in the protagonist, and what they learn through the story, rather than the narrator.  Vonnegut chose to use the narrator because he could just come out and state things wrong with the world, while this might be more hidden if he used his main characters.