How is the painter directly characterized? In the book,2 B R 0 2 B by KURT VONNEGUT, JR?

In "2BR02B," he is unhappily painting a mural called The Happy Garden of Life in the hospital waiting room. One expression of individuality that has been suppressed and controlled in "2BR02B" is art. The painter is unhappy because he is forced to paint a mural that does not represent life as he understands it. The Happy Garden of Life depicts an impossibly formal, well-tended garden that is a metaphor for the world. Every body is interchangeable in the painting; in fact, they have already been painted. He merely fills in the blank circles above them with faces, which again evokes the theme of a lack of individuality. Through population control, people's lives are pruned like branches by gas chamber hostesses like Leora Duncan. But the order comes at the cost of individuality. As the painter tells the hospital orderly, "The world could do with a good deal more mess, if you ask me" (316). The other form of art represented here is the song the hospital orderly sings as he enters. It is an ode to the gas chambers and population control disguised as a love song, declaring that if the object of the singer's affection does not return his love, he will "get off this old planet, let some sweet baby have my place" (315). Even popular songs are controlled to send the government's message.