52 pages • 1 hour read
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.The Sirens of Titan
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1959A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 12-Epilogue Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: "The Gentleman from Tralfamadore"
The specific nature of the moon means that Rumfoord and Kazak are "permanently materialized on Titan" (127). Many parts of the moon are named after them and they live in a perfect reproduction of the Taj Mahal. They share the moon with Salo, an 11-million-year-old, tangerine-colored being with three eyes and three legs, each of which end in an inflatable suction pad. As the "most handsome, healthy, clean-minded specimen of his people" (128), Salo was chosen to carry a message from his home planet across the universe. The message is sealed in lead and hangs around his neck. Salo is forbidden from reading the message until he reaches his goal. However, he is still 18 million light years away because he crash-landed on Titan nearly half a million years ago. Salo is technically a machine, as are all beings on Tralfamadore. As such, he cannot break the "orders" (129) given to him on his home planet.
Salo's spaceship is suffering from a technical problem. He requires a missing part. In the thousands of years which he has spent on Titan, he has busied himself with sculpture, gardening, and closely observing life on Earth. While watching Earth, he saw a message written to him on the planet from Tralfamadore. Four such messages take the form of great monuments built by humans, such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. The messages are confusing but Salo knows that some messages do not reach him. The cultures which will build the monuments containing the messages "poop out without having finished the messages" (130). Salo worries that Rumfoord will react badly to the knowledge that humanity only really exists as an elaborate form of communication between Salo and Tralfamadore, so he does not explain this to Rumfoord. Indeed, he has come to love Rumfoord in a platonic way and very much enjoys his company.
The beings on Tralfamadore have their own mythology. Though they are now mostly machines, they believe that, in the past, "there were creatures who weren't anything like machines" (131). These organic beings fussed and worried over their purpose in their limited lives so much that they invented machines to worry for them. These machines were tasked with finding the meaning of life. When the machines reached the conclusion that life had no real purpose, the organic beings killed one another due to existential horror. The job of killing was also given to the machines and, very quickly, all the organic beings were dead.
Salo waits for Constant, Beatrice, and Chrono to arrive on Titan. He is fascinated by humans' love of entertainment. He hopes his gardens and his sculptures and his "Titanic daises" (132) will entertain the humans. When Rumfoord and Kazak greet Salo, something seems wrong. Rumfoord is partially dematerialized and the dog seems to be (but is not actually) on fire. Rumfoord blames "sunspots" (133) which have affected the chrono-synclastic infundibulum, not for the first time. However, Salo is shocked by Rumfoord's irritated and dismissive attitude, which is new. Rumfoord suggests that they drop "this guise of friendship" (134). This hurts Salo. As he tries to explain all the ways he has helped Rumfoord, the human only becomes more irritated. Rumfoord explains that the replacement part needed for Salo to leave Titan is "almost here" (135).
Salo suddenly understands the real reason for Rumfoord's irritation. He has just discovered that he is being controlled from a distance by Tralfamadore. Rumfoord complains that he has been used like some household appliance to send a message to Salo. He tries to insult Salo for being a machine. Though Salo is insulted, he tries to cheer Rumfoord. However, Rumfoord does not care. An imminent explosion that will happen on the sun is set to knock his ship "clear out of the Solar System" (136). Rumfoord does not want Salo's pity, though he hides his tears. As a parting gift, he asks to know what is contained in Salo's message even though revealing the message is "against all orders from Tralfamadore" (137).
Elsewhere, Constant, Beatrice, and Chrono study the millions of statues, each of which contains some horrifying or unpleasant detail. The spaceship has taken 17 months to travel from Earth to Titan. During this time, Constant has insisted that he will never be used by anyone else ever again. Beatrice ignores his "stale" (138) speech, as does Chrono. Neither is particularly interested in Constant. Salo arrives in a rowboat and Chrono threatens to stab him. Salo wryly admits that he wishes he "were dead" (139). He brings news that Rumfoord is about to die and has asked to see them. When the family meets Rumfoord again, he tries to be warm with them. He explains that "everything that every Earthling has ever done has been warped by creatures on a planet one-hundred-and-fifty thousand light years away" (141). He says that Chrono possesses the missing part Salo needs to continue his journey: his good luck charm. Rumfoord complains that Salo has refused to go against his program. Salo will not show Rumfoord his message. Then, he begins to fade. With his last words, he hopes that the Tralfamadorians will grant humanity free will now that the species is not needed to communicate with Salo. He vanishes forever.
Just as Rumfoord dies, Salo bounds toward him and cries out that he is willing to share the message. However, he arrives too late. He blames himself for being a weak and flawed machine. As he has disobeyed his order and tried to share the message, he is not sure he is even truly a machine any longer. Instead, he shows the message to the remaining humans. The message is simply a dot which in Tralfamadorian means "greetings" (142).
After revealing his message, Salo tries to kill himself by taking himself apart. Chrono inspects the machine pieces. Feeling satisfied that his own good luck charm was part of some greater plan, he lays it among the "scattered parts" (143).
Epilogue Summary
Constant and Beatrice both live until they are 74. They die "within twenty-four hours of each other" (144). Before dying, Constant takes up residence inside Salo's ship. He uses Chrono's charm to repair the ship but he has no idea how to pilot the complicated machine. To pass the time, he is also "trying to get Salo back together" (144). While he still entertains the idea of returning to Earth, Beatrice and Chrono are content to remain on Titan. Chrono has grown familiar with the birds which live on the moon. He lives "among their nests by the Kazak pools" (145), has learned their language, and now rarely sees his father. Constant occasionally finds shrines built by Chrono. He tidies these shrines and feels proud of his son. Beatrice lives alone in the Taj Mahal replica. Occasionally, Constant visits and they have a furious argument. Afterward, she always calls on him to comfort her. To pass the time, she writes a book titled The True Purpose of Life in the Solar System.
In the book, Beatrice has written extensively to dismiss the idea that "the purpose of human life in the Solar System was to get a grounded messenger from Tralfamadore on his way again" (146). She occasionally reads passages to Constant but he never really listens. He stares into the pool while she reads, saying that the worst thing that could happen to a person "would be to not be used for anything by anybody" (147). A thick mulch has grown across the surface, obscuring the statues of the three sirens of Titan which are beneath the water. As Constant tries to drain the pool, he realizes that he can no longer hear Beatrice. She is dead. Constant holds a small funeral for Beatrice. Chrono attends, wearing a cloak of feathers, and thanks his parents "for the gift of life " (148) then disappears with the birds.
Salo is reassembled. He finds Constant and thanks him for the reassembly work. The work was completed long ago, he explains, but he remained silent because he did not know whether he wanted to come back to life. Salo has decided to resume his mission. Constant talks to Salo about his love for Beatrice. Just a year ago, he realized that the true purpose "is to love whoever is around to be loved" (149). Salo offers to take Chrono and Constant back to Earth. Chrono stays with the birds but Constant accepts. He asks to be taken to Indianapolis. This worries Salo, who begins to think he may have made a mistake. Constant explains that, though Indianapolis is a cold, harsh place for a homeless old man to be, it is significant because it is "the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder" (149) of a Native American. Salo is concerned by this but he takes Constant to Indianapolis anyway.
Before they land on Earth, Salo hypnotizes Constant. He places an idea in Constant's mind that, when he dies, "a wonderful thing will happen" (150) to him. Constant is taken to a snowy bus stop in Indianapolis. The time is 3 AM. After they bid each other farewell, Constant sits and waits for the bus. Unknown to Constant, the bus is delayed by the snow. Constant dies of exposure to the cold. As he dies, Salo's idea begins to emerge. Constant imagines that he is joined at the bus stop by his "best and only friend" (151), Stony Stevenson, who is dropped off by his own spaceship. Stevenson invites Constant to join him on the spaceship and to travel together to paradise, where Beatrice will be waiting for him. Constant is surprised that a man like him would be allowed to enter paradise. Stevenson assures Constant that "someone up there likes you" (151).
Chapter 12-Epilogue Analysis
The final chapters of The Sirens of Titan bring the character of Salo to the forefront. In previous chapters, Salo was mentioned but was discussed in an abstract manner. He was a machine who provided assistance to Rumfoord, who was framed as the real orchestrator behind the events of the novel. Salo's emergence as a character in his own right places him in direct opposition to Rumfoord. After flying his spaceship into the space anomaly, Rumfoord has lost his humanity. He has become completely focused on spreading his ideology to other humans and he has mistreated, abused, and traumatized his wife in the process. In addition, Rumfoord has sacrificed thousands of lives on the altar of his ideals, not caring about any of the Martian Army that he raised beyond their ability to lay the foundation for his church. Rumfoord believes that his ability to glimpse into the future and see the true machinations of the universe excuse this behavior. Salo, who possesses similar powers, demonstrates that this is not true. Salo is a machine but a machine who is deeply emotive. He has a great affection for Rumfoord (which is not returned) and he genuinely wants to help people. By the time Salo's character comes properly into focus, Rumfoord realizes that all his plans were as devoid of free will as everyone else's plans. Rumfoord is not unique, he is just as much a tool of the Tralfamadorians as everyone else. Whereas Rumfoord delighted in showing people their lack of free will, Salo does not want to tell Rumfoord the truth because he does not want to hurt his friend's feelings. Salo and Rumfoord possess similar powers but they could not be more different. Salo emerges into the narrative as a final condemnation of Rumfoord, illustrating that the excuses Rumfoord made for his actions were as hollow as his ideology.
Salo explains to Beatrice and Constant that humanity does not truly have free will of its own—the species is just a mechanism used to bring a small hunk of metal from Mars to Titan. Whereas this idea appalled Rumfoord, Beatrice and Constant are indifferent. They have already been robbed of their sense of agency. After passing through so many brain wipes and traumatizing incidents, they no longer have the energy to care about their free will. Constant, for example, is so burdened with guilt that a lack of free will could be almost a relief. He is horrified that he killed his best friend and that he raped Beatrice. However, Constant is not relieved. He is told that he has no real agency but he does not reject personal responsibility. He carries his guilt with him and spends the rest of his time on Titan trying to atone for his mistakes. Through small gestures and careful diligence, he tries to win Beatrice's love, or at least her forgiveness.
Constant's reaction to learning about the true nature of humanity's relation to the universe speaks to a key theme in the novel: the meaning of life comes from the individual looking within themselves. Constant finds meaning through atonement, whereas Rumfoord tried to find meaning through altering the course of history. When he realized that he had no influence over the course of history, Rumfoord was left with nothing. Constant, through his constant search for forgiveness and atonement, can give his life a sense of purpose, even if it only changes his own inner world.
At the end of the novel, Salo validates this sense of individual catharsis. He implants a fake memory in Constant's mind. When Constant dies, Stony Stevenson comes to him and forgives him for his sins. The forgiveness is not real; Stony himself is an illusion, planted in the mind of a man who has forgotten his friend by a machine who never knew him. The catharsis provided to Constant, however, is very real. Abstract concepts like free will and agency fade into the background in this moment and the more pernicious, more intensely-felt emotions like guilt and forgiveness emerge in the foreground. Salo understands that Constant feels a need to be forgiven and, as a gesture of kindness, he gives this feeling to him. To Constant's dying brain, there is no discernible difference between the artificial and the real. Either way, he enjoys a moment of catharsis before his death.
Related Titles
By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
