2 B R 0 2 B

The painter is the anti-hero and primary protagonist of “2 B R 0 2 B.” Nameless, he is a sardonic old man who is 200 years old but looks 35. Though the primary action of the story does not revolve around him, he observes all of the action and he is the only character whose internal state is revealed through both dialogue and narration.

For most of the story, the painter is begrudgingly painting the mural of the garden with faceless figures whose faces are to be filled in with staff from the hospital and from the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Termination, which is concerned with voluntary suicide. The painting serves as a visual metaphor for the society that the characters inhabit, described by Vonnegut as “neat.” The mural also depicts the fundamental choice that undergirds the society: life or death. However, this fundamental choice and the process of death are depicted in a banal way and made to be pleasant. The painter fundamentally disagrees with this view.

Instead, he sees life as a dirty drop cloth lying on the floor, something chaotic and unsterilized. While such a view of life is bleak, something that the orderly comments on, it’s also a view of life that allows for more