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.
Chapters 9-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: "A Puzzle Solved"
On Earth, Rumfoord's revised Bible becomes a best-seller, as does a children's book detailing Unk and Boaz's adventures on Mercury. On Mars, Boaz and Unk communicate with the harmoniums. Every 14 days, they receive "a new message of hope or veiled derision" (96). In fact, they are communicating with Rumfoord, who is secretly arranging the harmoniums to spell out optimistic messages.
After three years, Unk notices Kazak's footprint on the cave floor. By this time, however, his relationship with Boaz has broken down and they move "in very different circles" (97). Unk once attacked Boaz, prompted by Boaz praising a normal-seeming harmonium as "a cute little feller" (97). Without telling Boaz, Unk follows Kazak's tracks through the cave. Boaz remains behind. He is now completely devoted to the harmoniums and he has "never felt better" (98). He believes that Unk has lost his mind, partially because he shows so little appreciation for the marvelous creatures. Neither man wants to hear the truth from the other: Boaz does not want to hear that the harmoniums are simply uninteresting and Unk does not want to hear that he killed Stony Stevenson. Boaz creates an arrangement based on the idea of "don't truth me […] and I won't truth you" (99).
When talking to the harmoniums, Boaz refers to himself as Uncle Boaz. He performs a concert for them but he must be careful as the creatures are vulnerable to a "lethal overdose" (100) of music. Unk still believes that Stevenson is "waiting for him around the next bend" (101) and he fantasizes about reuniting with his friend. He believes that he is being kept from his friend by the people who live in the skyscrapers which he (mistakenly) believes are above the caves. These are the people behind the harmoniums' messages, Unk believes, so he hates the harmoniums.
One day, the harmoniums display a message to Unk, telling him how to get out of the caves by turning the ship "UPSIDE DOWN" (102). Boaz refuses to leave with Unk. He has seen his own messages which now make sense. In these messages, the harmoniums pleaded with Boaz to stay with them. Boaz insists that he loves the harmoniums and that they love him. Unk figures out a way to free the spaceship, just as Boaz tearfully reveals that he has accidently killed the harmoniums with an overdose of music. Nevertheless, he still plans to remain on Mercury with "all the crazy little animals" (103).
Chapter 10 Summary: "An Age of Miracles"
On Earth, the war dead are buried and "Martians and Earthlings lay side by side" (105). Many are buried in the graveyards belonging to the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. Unk returns to Earth and stands in one of these graveyards. Aged 43, he is motivated only by the desire "to be reunited with Bee, his mate, with Chrono, his son, and with Stony Stevenson, his best and only friend" (106). Part of the teachings of the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent is that a Space Wanderer will one day arrive on Earth. He will be naked and every church is equipped with a ceremonial yellow one-piece outfit for him to wear. Another is the prevalence of small figurines called Malachis which are hung everywhere by small nooses and which represent "a repellent way of life that [is] no more" (107). During one sermon, the Reverend C. Horner Redwine steps outside his church and sees Unk's spaceship land in the nearby graveyard. He excitedly declares that the Space Wanderer has arrived. Unk is "terrified" (108). He tries to return to his ship but it breaks down.
Unk steps out of the ship. A crowd gathers around him. As with many devotees of their religion, the members of the crowd wear "handicaps" (109), minor social inconveniences which act as a show of faith in their irrelevancy. Redwine dresses Unk in the yellow outfit but is confused when Unk thanks God that he is on Earth. By this time, the church has "a good, round three billion" (110) members, including many strict disciplinarians who will punish anyone who suggests that they are particularly favored by the indifferent God. When Unk explains to the crowd that he was the "victim of a series of accidents" (111), they cheer for him and unfurl a banner containing these exact words.
Unk is driven on a fire engine to Rumfoord's Newport estate. Unk is shocked to see so many people happy to see him. A crowd is gathered at the estate. Nearby, Beatrice and the 11-year-old Chrono have a booth selling merchandise. Despite her seemingly-lowly position, most people recognize that Beatrice is "far nobler" (112) than the other stallholders. Chrono, despite his occasionally criminal misbehavior, has special dispensation from the church to not be punished. After crashing in the rainforest, they both spent months eating a certain type of root which has turned their skin golden. They were eventually saved from the rainforest and given a "lucrative Malachi concession" (113) by Rumfoord.
The merchandise sellers stop sales five minutes before a scheduled materialization. They wait for the Space Wanderer's arrivals. Chrono, uninterested, picks at his nails with his "good-luck piece" (114). Unk arrives at the exact time that Rumfoord and Kazak appear. Rumfoord calls to "bring the Space Wanderer here!" (116). Beatrice watches, not remembering her previous life but thinking about how Rumfoord has abused the Martian survivors for his own benefit. On a stage, Rumfoord calls on Beatrice and Chrono to come forward. Seeing Rumfoord for the first time in years, Unk notices that the man has changed and seems "not well by any means" (118). His charm and energy have disappeared. He seems pallid and concerned. Unk decides to keep quiet and thinks instead about Stevenson. Rumfoord arranges Unk, Beatrice, and Chrono awkwardly on the stage and reveals "Earth's longest free-standing ladder" (120) which leads to the door to a spaceship.
Chapter 11 Summary: "We Hate Malachi Constant Because…"
Rumfoord delivers a long speech criticizing Malachi Constant, who "used the fantastic fruits of his fantastic good luck to finance an unending demonstration that man is a pig" (121). Constant claimed that his remarkable good fortune was the will of God and Rumfoord insists that God had nothing to do with Constant, or any other human. Rumfoord tells the Space Wanderer to repeat the story of his life. Unk claims again that he is the "victim of a series of accidents" (122). Rumfoord reveals to the awed crowd that the Space Wanderer is, in fact, Malachi Constant, whose punishment will be exile from Earth. He will be sent to Titan on a spaceship. Unk, now remembering that he is Constant, climbs "the world's tallest free-standing ladder" (123) to the spaceship with Rumfoord's encouragement.
Before he leaves, Constant tells the crowd that he has not "understood a single thing" (124) that has happened to him since returning to Earth. If he feels he is being treated badly, Rumfoord says, then Constant could name one good deed he performed in his life. Struggling to think of anything, Constant mentions his friend Stony Stevenson. Rumfoord reveals that Stevenson was executed by Constant on Mars. This is the one memory that Constant has "done his best to eradicate" (124). Constant tearfully climbs aboard the spaceship. He is joined by Beatrice and Chrono. Before Beatrice boards the ship, Rumfoord tells the crowd her real identity and claims that she is as sinful as Malachi Constant. The church damns "her as roundly for refusing to risk her imagined purity in living as we damn Malachi Constant for wallowing in filth" (125). Beatrice, entering the ship, tells Constant that she is happy to get away from humanity as she is disgusted by what she has experienced. Inside the ship, they find a mess. Empty alcohol bottles and garbage litter the floor, indicating that it has been "the scene of one or perhaps several wild parties" (126).
Chapters 9-11 Analysis
Rumfoord's plan begins to emerge when he unveils his new religion. By the time Constant returns to Earth, Rumfoord's church has billions of members. The role of religion in the novel reveals the fundamental irony in Rumfoord's plan. He spends years trying to convince the world that they are not beholden to any God, indifferent or otherwise. In order to accomplish this, he changes his physical state to the point where he is hardly even human. Rumfoord becomes a quasi-religious figure, so much so that he even seems to have divine powers. He is a cosmic entity, existing in many places at once throughout the galaxy and only appearing to humans at regular intervals. During these materializations, he uses his knowledge of the future to make predictions in great detail that he knows will come true. To Rumfoord, this behavior seems mundane. He has spent so long in this state that he cannot see why his form of existence may be strange to other people. To these people, however, Rumfoord is essentially a God. He has the power to tell them what will happen in the future, exerting the same degree of control over them as any traditional God might do. Furthermore, he places himself as the head of a church and gives people a set of rules and rituals which he believes should govern their lives. In his desire to prove God's indifference, Rumfoord has turned himself into a Godlike figure. The irony of this is that he is anything but indifferent—despite his extraordinary powers, Rumfoord's motivations are dominated by petty grievances and unsettled scores. He devotes most of his religion to hating Malachi Constant, just as he did in his previous life. Rumfoord orchestrates an invasion of Earth and then builds an entire church to teach people that God is indifferent. In doing so, however, he only shows that the closest entity to a God that any person has ever encountered not only cares, but shapes their entire worldview around his complaints and objections. In sum, Rumfoord's entire plan only serves to undermine his own ideology.
An example of Rumfoord's pettiness is the Malachi dolls that Constant encounters when he returns to Earth. These small effigies are built in Constant's image. They are then ritually punished, strung up by a small noose and dangled from any available surface. Rumfoord's religion teaches people to abuse and execute Malachi Constant as the representative of everything that Rumfoord believes is wrong with the world. Malachi Constant always told people that someone or something liked him, thereby justifying his success. Rumfoord hates this idea and uses Constant's words as evidence for his own church. Once again, however, Rumfoord reveals a misunderstanding of his own ideology. Malachi Constant has the bad fortune of becoming the most loathed figure in the world only because a more powerful being—namely, Rumfoord—dislikes him. Constant attributing his good fortune to a personal endorsement from a Godlike figure enraged Rumfoord, but Rumfoord's actions validate Constant's comments by proving that the inverse is possible.
One of the few altruistic acts performed by Rumfoord during the course of the novel is his insistence that Beatrice, Chrono, and the other survivors of the Martian invasion be given the opportunity to run a concession stall on his estate. These survivors sell tacky memorabilia and Malachi effigies to people who gather for Rumfoord's regular materializations. Beatrice and Chrono have one of the best locations for their stall. However, even with Rumfoord's benevolent intentions, the stark passive-aggressive nature of this act is a damning indictment of his lack of affection for his wife. Beatrice once owned this entire estate. She lost it because her husband—who has the ability to see into the future—deliberately chose not to warn her about a stock market crash. He preferred that she be immiserated, abused, impoverished, traumatized, and sent to Mars. Since then, Beatrice has had her memory wiped. She cannot remember owning or living on this estate. On an individual level, she simply feels a deep, unspoken loathing for Rumfoord which she cannot explain. On a narrative level, Beatrice's presence at the stalls is a reminder of Rumfoord's inhumanity. He took everything from his wife and turned her into a tool for his grand plan. Beatrice meant nothing to him and, even when he is seemingly being altruistic, his benevolence hides a cruel joke about his real feelings.
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