Paintings Symbol Analysis

Paintings in Breakfast of Champions symbolize art’s subjectivity and arbitrariness. When Eliot Rosewater wants Kilgore Trout to speak at the upcoming Arts Festival in Midland City, Rosewater convinces the chairman of the festival to invite Kilgore by offering to loan his three million dollar El Greco painting to the festival. When Rosewater offers the painting to Midland City in exchange for Kilgore, this implies that Kilgore’s writing is worth a comparable amount. Of course, Kilgore’s writing isn’t worth anything to the masses, but to Rosewater, it is worth about three million dollars. Another example comes from Kilgore’s novel, This Year’s Masterpiece, when a government official spins a wheel of chance each year to determine the cash value of art. Gooz, a local cobbler, paints a picture of his cat, and it is determined to be worth over one billion dollars. The government later discovers that the wheel is rigged, but Vonnegut’s point is clear—the value and meaning of art is subjective, and often determined in completely arbitrary ways. Furthermore, when the Arts Center in Midland City pays Rabo Karabekian fifty thousand dollars for his simple and childish painting, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, the entire town is outraged. Citizens of Midland City can’t believe that the center has paid so much for the painting when they have “seen better pictures done by a five-year-old.” Through Karabekian’s painting, Vonnegut implies that art is often lacking inherent value and is, at times, downright absurd. To Midland City, Karabekian’s painting doesn’t serve a deeper purpose, such as revealing truth or beauty, and it is simply about making money. In this way, Vonnegut argues art’s subjectivity and implies that art is often meaningless and assigned value in completely arbitrary, and often absurd, ways.