The Man Character Analysis

The main character in Kilgore Trout’s novel, Now It Can Be Told. The Man, a test subject of the Creator of the Universe, is the only creature in a universe of “fully programmable robots” with free will and the “ability to make up his own mind.” The Man represents Adam from the biblical story of creation, and because he has free will, the Creator never knows what he is going to say next. The Man’s tombstone claims that “perhaps the Man was a better universe in its infancy,” and this implies that Vonnegut believes the idea of humankind is better than the reality, which he views as destructive and greedy.