Is Howard Campbell Insane - Essay Example

I believe that Howard Campbell is not insane because, first of all, Howard Campbell lost his hope and became a death in society. Secondly, he always pretended to be someone else. So he could continue to live but knew what he was doing. He was not only a hero in his life but also died like a hero. He saw life with different angles and faced various difficult situations. But he never lost his hope and came up victoriously from all those difficult situations. He lived in the dark and was fearful about all the things around him.

This was basically the way for him to regain the aims and expectations of living life. He started to recognize the importance of life. The Second World War taught him how to view all the aspects of life. Howard Campbell lost his hope and became a death in society because he not only lost his wife, Helga, but also his writing talent. As Howard Campbell said, “That was how I lost her. She was entertaining troops in the Crimea, and the Russians took the Crimea back. My Helga was presumed dead” (Vonnegut 42).

So Howard lost his hope and tried to run away from reality because his wife was everything to him. “And so, with my Helga presumed dead, I became a death worshiper, as content as any narrow –minded religious nut anywhere. Always alone, I drank toasts to her, said good morning to her, said good night to her, played music for her, and didn’t give any damn for one thing else” (Vonnegut 47). Howard became a discouraged person who was spending all his energy and life in order to stay alive.

So he had a little efficiency for anything else. And that is why he lost his interest in everything and also lost his writing talent. “The part of me that wanted to tell the truth got turned into an expert liar! The lover in me got turned into a pornographer! The artist in me got turned into ugliness such as the world has rarely seen before” (Vonnegut 206). But after all