Original artwork, not a still
Mother Night · 1961
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Vonnegut offers the book's one clear lesson as a warning about masks: play a part long enough and it stops being a disguise. Campbell insists he only pretended to be a Nazi, and the novel refuses to let that excuse him. The line is quoted far beyond the book wherever people talk about acting a role at work, online or in politics.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Mother NightShow the scene
This is the moral Vonnegut attaches to Mother Night, the fictional confession of Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American playwright who broadcast Nazi propaganda in wartime Germany while secretly serving as a US spy. It does not come from the story but from Vonnegut's own introduction, written for the 1966 edition of a novel first published in February 1962. The line is often misquoted in the form "Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be."
Sources (2)
- Kurt Vonnegut (Wikiquote)Mother Night entry, Introduction (1966)Reference checked
- Mother Night (Wikipedia)Lead paragraphReference checked
Context reviewed
