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Kurt Vonnegut
A minimal painter and one of the “distinguished” artists invited to the Arts Festival in Midland City. Fred T. Barry purchases Rabo’s painting, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, to display at the Mildred Barry Center for the Arts. The painting, a childish swath of green paint with a strip of orange reflective tape, nearly causes a scandal in Midland City because of its fifty-thousand-dollar price tag. No one can believe the arts center has paid so much for such little work, but after Rabo explains the painting as a representation of “an unwavering band of light,” Midland City begins to see its worth. Rabo’s outlandish explanation of his art, and Midland City’s easy and immediate acceptance of it, reflects the arbitrary, and often absurd, meaning of art. Rabo’s painting also implies that art does not have inherent or universal value, and that art is often about making money, not a deeper search for truth or beauty. Despite this satirical representation of art, however, Vonnegut still argues art’s worth, and even suggests that is “sacred.” Rabo’s poetic explanation of his painting brings about the “spiritual climax” of the novel and “transforms” Vonnegut in the process. It is with Rabo’s speech about “unwavering bands of light” that Vonnegut’s people-as-machines narrative begins to unravel and he starts to see people, including his literary characters, as not simply machines but as sentient human beings with thoughts and emotions.
Rabo Karabekian Quotes in Breakfast of Champions
The Breakfast of Champions quotes below are all either spoken by Rabo Karabekian or refer to Rabo Karabekian. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 19
Quotes
I had no respect whatsoever for the creative works of either the painter or the novelist. I thought Karabekian with his meaningless pictures had entered into a conspiracy with millionaires to make poor people feel stupid. I thought Beatrice Keedsler had joined hands with other old-fashioned storytellers to make people believe that life had leading characters, minor characters, significant details, insignificant details, that it had lessons to be learned, tests to be passed, and a beginning, a middle, and an end.
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“I now give you my word of honor,” he went on, “that the picture your city owns shows everything about life which truly matters, with nothing left out. It is a picture of the awareness of every animal. It is the immaterial core of every animal—the ‘I am’ to which all messages are sent. It is all that is alive in any of us—in a mouse, in a deer, in a cocktail waitress. It is unwavering and pure, no matter what preposterous adventure may befall us. A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture would show two such bands of light. Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery.”
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Rabo Karabekian Quotes in Breakfast of Champions
The Breakfast of Champions quotes below are all either spoken by Rabo Karabekian or refer to Rabo Karabekian. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 19
Quotes
I had no respect whatsoever for the creative works of either the painter or the novelist. I thought Karabekian with his meaningless pictures had entered into a conspiracy with millionaires to make poor people feel stupid. I thought Beatrice Keedsler had joined hands with other old-fashioned storytellers to make people believe that life had leading characters, minor characters, significant details, insignificant details, that it had lessons to be learned, tests to be passed, and a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“I now give you my word of honor,” he went on, “that the picture your city owns shows everything about life which truly matters, with nothing left out. It is a picture of the awareness of every animal. It is the immaterial core of every animal—the ‘I am’ to which all messages are sent. It is all that is alive in any of us—in a mouse, in a deer, in a cocktail waitress. It is unwavering and pure, no matter what preposterous adventure may befall us. A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture would show two such bands of light. Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
