In the following excerpt, Festa discusses Vonnegut's use of satirical style in discussing themes of technology and life in such stories as "Harri-son Bergeron."

From the beginning of his professional writing career, Vonnegut evinced a strong inclination to write satire. Stories such as "Harrison Bergeron," "Report on the Barnhouse Effect," "The Euphio Question," "Welcome to the Monkey House," and his first novel, Player Piano, fit easily and recognizably into the satiric genre. That is, they (1) sustain a reductive attack on their objects, (2) convey to their intended readers significances at odds with the literal or surface meanings, and (3) are pervaded and dominated by various satiric techniques. Furthermore, the satiric objects in those works are easily identifiable and familiar, and their satiric significances are obvious. Judged solely on his early fiction, Vonnegut emerges as a somewhat traditional satirist. Were he to have continued writing in that way, we all...