List of figures -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- A post-Jungian mythodology for reading short stories -- Part I. Kurt Vonnegut: A comedic Cassandra -- War's shadow: Vonnegut's conflicts with arms -- Fragmented independence: Vonnegut's critiques of the American trinity -- Part II. Ray Bradbury: A polychromatic Pollyanna -- Dynamic domesticities: Bradbury splits the nuclear family -- Hope for wholeness: Bradbury's heliocentric individuation -- Epilogue: Golden apples of the monkey house -- Primary sources -- Secondary sources -- Index