Megan Cablk

The short story, All the King’s Horses by Kurt Vonnegut, offers a compelling and horrifying view into the relations between war, power, and human life. In the story, Colonel Bryan Kelly and fifteen other Americans, including his wife and twin sons,  are taken as prisoners of war by Communist guerilla chief Pi Ying after their plane crash lands on the Asiatic mainland. Pi Ying offers the Colonel an untraditional and sadistic means to win their freedom: play Pi Ying, and eventually the Russian Major Barzov,  in a game of chess, with the sixteen prisoners making up the Colonel’s chess pieces. When a piece gets captured, the prisoner is killed. If the Colonel loses the game, they will all be killed. Their only hope is to win the game with as few casualties as possible.

A crucial piece in understanding the short story is understanding the author, Kurt Vonnegut. Born in 1922,

A portrait of Kurt Vonnegut (Flickr).

Vonnegut served in the army during World War II (A Brief…). Vonnegut was captured and taken prisoner by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to Dresden, which was later bombed heavily by the British and American forces. Part of VOnnegut’s tasks as a POW was to clean up the dead bodies after bombing. This intimate and traumatic experience with the horrors of war leaks into many of his works, including his claim to fame novel Slaughterhouse-Five, and is glaringly present in All the King’s Horses. As the Colonel plays the game of chess against Pi Ying, he frequently switches between the cold, emotionless military man who needs to preserve as much life as possible, to a broken, terrified man who realizes he is playing with human lives that are being killed directly as a result of his actions. Colonel Kelly realizes that his actions are “…no different, philosophically, from what he had known in war.” As a former POW himself, Vonnegut understands the desperation of the position the Americans are in. More than anything, they want to be let free with their lives, even if the only way to do it is to appeal to Pi Ying’s sadistic game. The Colonel is able to remove himself from the moral dilemma, as the leaders who handled Vonnegut’s situation must have done, to try and win the “battle” even if that means sacrificing lives. There are characters, such as the young corporal, who try to resist the decisions Kelly is making, perhaps reflecting Vonnegut’s own sentiments towards those in power during his imprisonment who allowed him and many others to experience such horrors. 

One of the most important tools Vonnegut uses in the story is his characterization of Colonel Kelly. In the beginning of the story, Vonnegut uses a direct writing style to show the objectivity of the Colonel; he was able to regard his fellow prisoners as “… no longer human, but a piece capable of moving diagonally across the board…” Vonnegut sets up the Colonel to seem heartless, not comprehending the value of human life, as a means of protecting himself from the horrors he knows he has to commit to be able to ensure the safety of the majority of the prisoners, including his wife and kids. But, after the first player is killed, the Colonel flips entirely in the other direction, as his “… calm was shattered, and with it the illusion of the game.” The

An image depicting the final moves between Colonel Kelly and his final competitor, Barzov.

Colonel regains his humanity in a split second, but is no longer able to think through his moves to best protect the players and win the game. This duality exists inside him for the majority of the game — he understands that he must sacrifice some people, but his emotions frequently get in the way of making objective decisions. Through the complex characterization of the Colonel, Vonnegut offers important philosophical questions about the complexities of war and the decisions that have to be made for it to occur. The Colonel fights to protect his sanity by removing himself from the situation and his emotions, but reality is not willing to let him go so easily. On a broader level, the Colonel is used to represent the government and the decisions that are made every day with human lives, whether fatal or not, that frequently occur without input from said people. This restriction of freedom is dangerous to the foundation of a country, which can be seen in the Colonel’s own mental torment that tries to tear him apart as he tries to hold himself together. 

Overall, All the King’s Horses, is an extremely thought provoking short story, covering the horrors of war, the balance of power, and the potency — or lack thereof — of human emotions and their effect on actions. The implications of the story are not for the faint of heart, but cause the reader to question power dynamics and their own morals, making for an extremely important short story that has already impacted generations, and is bound to continue its relevance long into the future.

Works Cited

“A Brief Biography – Kurt Vonnegut Museum And Library”. Kurt Vonnegut Museum And Library, 2020, https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/kurt-biography/. Accessed 12 Oct 2020.

““It Was The Narcotic Of Generalship. It Was The Essence Of War.” Kurt Vonnegut’S Short Story, “All The King’S Horses””. Bibliophilopolis, 2010, https://bibliophilica.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/it-was-the-narcotic-of-generalship-it-was-the-essence-of-war-kurt-vonneguts-short-story-all-the-kings-horses/. Accessed 12 Oct 2020.

“The Tension Between The Powerful And The Powerless: Political Manipulation In “All The King’s Horses” And ‘Wag The Dog’ | Literature Essay Samples”. Literature Essay Samples, 2019,