Vonnegut was one of three children, his brother Bernard growing up to become an esteemed atmospheric physicist. Like so many in America when the Great Depression hit, his family suffered from financial insecurity, and in 1932 when his father brought over a businessman offering a suspicious investment that gave his father hope of regaining that security, the precocious younger Vonnegut questioned the issuer, much to the consternation of his father, but the businessman later ended up cheating many in Indianapolis out of their wealth when his scheme turned out to be fraudulent.<ref>''Palm Sunday'', pp. 221-224.</ref>
Vonnegut admitted later in life that, possibly in part due to stress from motherhood and the ordeals involved in the Great Depression that his mother, daughter of a millionaire playboy, would lapse into intense fits of rage<ref>Vonnegut, Kurt (1991). ''Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage of the 1980s'' (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons), p. 36.</ref>, and that she eventually committed suicide in May 1944<ref>''Palm Sunday'', p. 36.</ref>, her cause of death being publicly covered up. Vonnegut would struggle with depression himself throughout his life.<ref>''Fates Worse Than Death'', p. 29.</ref>
Vonnegut recounted growing up in Indianapolis with a fondness for reading Mark Twain and the kind of pranks often found in his works. When he was a high school sophomore, his socialist uncle gave him a copy of ''Theory of the Leisure Class'' by [[Thorstein Veblen]], critical of the empty prestige found among wealthy Americans, which he loved.<ref>''Palm Sunday'', p. 59.</ref> This grew into a talent for writing, and when Vonnegut attended [[Cornell University]] he became an editor of the ''Cornell Daily Sun''.<ref>''Palm Sunday'', p. 62.</ref> He failed to receive a master's degree, however, when his master's thesis was rejected shortly before he was conscripted into the Army during World War II. Vonnegut pulled a prank during his battalion enlistment muster, however, ensuring he would remain a private for most of the war.<ref>''Fates Worse Than Death'', p. 21.</ref>
Vonnegut admitted later in life that, possibly in part due to stress from motherhood and the ordeals involved in the Great Depression that his mother, daughter of a millionaire playboy, would lapse into intense fits of rage<ref>Vonnegut, Kurt (1991). ''Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage of the 1980s'' (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons), p. 36.</ref>, and that she eventually committed suicide in May 1944<ref>''Palm Sunday'', p. 36.</ref>, her cause of death being publicly covered up. Vonnegut would struggle with depression himself throughout his life.<ref>''Fates Worse Than Death'', p. 29.</ref>
==Service during World War II==