Characters in Sirens

Character(ization) is a very big part of The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut, so I will provide a quote from the book that states each main character's purpose, and then elaborate on that character's purpose.


-Malachi Constant/Unk/The Space Wanderer
"...No longer can a fool like Malachi Constant point to a ridiculous accidnet and say, 'someone up there likes me'..." (218)

This quote is said by a Reverend C. Horner Redwine, a priest for the Church of God, the Utterly Indifferent, which is a religion based on god's apathy.
This explains Malachi's purpose by showing that he was just the scapegoat for all of the events in the story: He starts out as a shallow, wealthy socialite living in Hollywood who doesn't know happiness and is approached by Winston Niles Rumfoord.
Later, he is 'recruited' for the Martian army, he rapes a woman on his flight to Mars. They find out, though, and he is brainwashed and demoted the private, "Unk'.
Later, he returns (after four years on Mercury) to Earth, as the savior of humanity and poster child for this new church and religion, where he is ridiculed for his past lives and exiled to Titan.


-Winston Niles Rumfoord
"It has been said that Earthling civilization, so far, has created ten thousand wars, but only three intelligent commentaries on war-the commentaries of Thucydides, of Julius Ceaser, and of Winston Niles Rumfoord." (167)

This quote not only beings to show Rumfoord's purpose in the book, but also his standing with other great men in history. The Church of God, the Utterly Indifferent was started by Rumfoord after Mars' invasion of Earth, in hopes that it would unify all the countries, races, religions, etc. and create a Utopia of sorts.
After Mars invaded Earth, Rumfoord, who disobeyed an order and flew his private spaceship into a wormhole(and now travels freely between time and space), rose up with this brand new idea on a religion where God doesn't care about anyone or anything, and everyone is 'victim of a series of accidents'. It wasn't just his status that allowed him to convert all of humanity, but he also kidnapped Earthlings for the Mars Army, trained them, and orchestrated the attack on Earth in order to form his new religion.


-Salo/Tralfamadorians
"Once upon a time on Tralfamadore there were creatures that weren't anything like machines...These poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to a have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others...Every time they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame. And, rather than serve such a low purpose, the creatures would make a machine to serve it."(279-280)

The place in Sirens that the Tralfamadorians serve is almost like a cautionary tale about human intrigue. The tale continues on to say that eventually the machines were doing almost everything for the creatures, and the creatures realized that they no longer had purpose, so they decided to kill each other. Unfortunately, they couldn't even do this, so they built machines to kill them. Now the machines rebuild themselves and have evolved an artificial intelligence.
As well as Tralfamadorians' purpose in the book, one particular Tralfamadorian, Salo, is of extreme importance the plot of the book. He was stranded on Titan by a faulty ship, and met with Rumfoord, who is constantly on Titan, unlike other places in the galaxy. After their meeting, they become friends of sorts and Salo gives Rumfoord technology for the Mars army, which allows the book to unfold and every event to happen.



-Bee
"Unk--You know why you keep on going? You keep going because you have a mate and a child. Almost nobody on Mars has either one. Your mate's name is Bee...Like everybody else on Mars, Bee and Chrono have learned to get along all alone. They don't miss you. They never think of you. But you have to prove to them that they need you in the biggest way possible"(131).

This is written in a sort of instructional letter, much like one you would leave to someone house-sitting while you're on vacation, that Malachi Constant leaves for Unk to find on Mars. It explains why Bee, although not that big of a character, is still as important as she is. Her purpose in Sirens, in part, is a motivator to convince Unk to gather his family and get off of Mars before the invasion of Earth starts.



-Chrono
Chrono is Bee and Unk's child that they had on the spaceship to Mars. He lives in the school on Mars. There is no summarizing quote for Chrono, but it is obvious why he is there.
On an obvious level, he's there as a sort of courier of the replacement piece that will repair Salo's ship and allow him to continue on his mission, but Chrono also has a much more significant purpose for Unk: Along with Bee, Chrono, without even knowing it, urges Unk to leave Mars just by being there. After reading his letter to himself, Unk goes to visit both Chrono and Bee in their respective residences. Afterward, he realizes that he must escape.