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ENG
3230- Sept.
23, 1999:
Essays on Vonnegut's Cat's
Cradle
Matt Johnson
Hoosiers, Ugly Americans and Absolute Repose:
Satire, Surrealism and a little bit of Dark Humor in Cat's Cradle"And there on the shaft in letters six inches high, so help me God, was the word:
Mother" (48)
"'If that's mother,' said the driver, 'what in hell could they have raised over father?'"
As the reader soon finds out, 40 cm of marble, as directed by Felix Hoenikker's will, that says "FATHER" (49). Vonnegut stops you short and plucks at your hand like a little boy who has just shaved the cat and can't wait to show you what he's done: you can't, as a responsible adult, laugh at the absurdity of the bald and shivering feline because you know that you should be astonished, offended, annoyed, anything but burst out laughing, which you desperately desire to do. Vonnegut acts as Wrang-Wrang in this scene; two men in an ice storm, marveling at a towering alabaster penis given in memoriam to a mother by her children.
Vonnegut's use of the surreal (and, by the way, this is also an episode of, if not dark, then very twisted humor) in the scene discourages the reader's scrutiny so that Vonnegut can slip his point across without notice. What point? Possibly, and this could be just me thinking aloud, the scene describes the strength of the mother and the dual roles she had to play; the father was also a child, as simple and pure in his intellectual ecstasy as, well, a marble cube. "The marker was an alabaster phallus twenty feet high and three feet thick" (48), Vonnegut crows, inviting you to stand in the cold with him and wonder with the driver exactly what in hell is going on…
Satire is thrown into CC early and often, so much that it seems almost unfairly easy to extract examples, but it is such an integral component of the novel that it requires at least a look-see.
One of my favorite parts of the book is the scene on the airplane where Jonah meets not one but two stereotypical "Ugly Americans," a term coined by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick in the title of their 1958 novel of the same name.
The Mintons are well educated, speaking "six or seven" (65) languages between the two of them but see the people and places they have seen during their diplomatic careers as "About the same" (65). They are what Bokonon calls a duprass that will, as Jonah points out, die at very nearly the same time when the world is overcome by ice-nine. Wherever they go, they will think themselves better than those around them&emdash; world-weary cynics are not necessarily the best choice for the diplomatic corps, no matter how many languages they speak.
The Crosbys, in contrast to the Mintons, are granfalloons, filled with the foma that people from other countries will accept them for no other reasons than that they are Americans and "or else." Since unions have ruined the business of bicycle making, they have made it their mission to seek out new poor, scared and ignorant people to exploit. They do, however, adapt well to new situations; when the pool-pah hits, though the first thing that Hazel does is make an ersatz American flag for Jonah to plant on the top of Mount McCabe.
So how does it all "play out?" Busy, busy, busy…
Gretchen AnthonyMaking a Better World the Vonnegut Way Kurt Vonnegut's apocalyptic novel, Cat's Cradle, might well be called an intricate network of paradox and irony. It is with such irony and paradox that Vonnegut himself describes his work as "poisoning minds with humanity...to encourage them to make a better world" (The Vonnegut Statement 107). In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut does not tie his co-mingled plots into easy to digest bites as the short chapter structure of his story implies. Rather, he implores his reader to resolve the paradoxes and ironies of Cat's Cradle by simply allowing them to exist. By drawing our attention to the paradoxical nature of life, Vonnegut releases the reader from the necessity of creating meaning into a realm of infinite possibility. It appears that Vonnegut sees the impulse toward making a better world as fundamental to the human spirit; that when the obstacle of meaning is removed the reader, he supposes, will naturally improve the world.
Like a dream filled with complex characters and situations which one is compelled to discuss and analyze the next day, Vonnegut uses dark humor to penetrate his reader's world. The Cornell medical student whom the narrator, Jonah, first interviews by mail turns out to be a midget. The brilliant nuclear physicist, the father of the atom bomb, is infantile. Writers and college professors are essential to human existence, and Boko-maru is a form of love that can happen anytime, anywhere, and with anyone.
By creating new religious and scientific vocabularies, Vonnegut infiltrates the reader's very mind. Bokononist ideas and principles that are almost reasonable give the reader a temporary framework for interpretation, "'As it was supposed to happen,' Bokonon would say" (Cat's Cradle 63). Never too far from reality, "Bokonon tells us that it is very wrong to not to love everyone exactly the same. What does your religion say?" (CC 141). Vonnegut's prophet cuts close to the bone, and so he must in order to reach the philosophical roots of the reader's belief system. Yet, the security of any and every belief and interpretation of any and all of the characters is in one way or another polluted until there is nowhere to turn.
The reader is left in the end with nothing-no world, no God, no cat, no cradle-but the freedom to invent the future. It seems that Vonnegut trusts that, with all its flaws, humanity remains driven by a need to make a difference, and that with the cobweb of interpretation out of the way, it will do just that.
Katherine NewellVonnegut's Poison Pen In an interview published in The Vonnegut Statement, Kurt Vonnegut states that one of his reasons for writing is "to poison minds with humanity. . . to encourage them to make a better world"(107). He uses poison, not in the context of a harmful substance, but as an idea that threatens welfare or happiness. In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut strives to disturb the complacency of his readers by satirizing humanity and its institutions, such as religion, science, and war, to name a few. If Vonnegut is successful in his endeavor, he may disturb some enough to make them see the folly of what humanity has achieved, and attempt to make some meaningful and positive changes. In some instances, however, Vonnegut hedges his bets by not relying entirely on the perception of humanity, and succumbs to the temptation of plain speaking.
Julian Castle, physician and philanthropist, offers this opinion about his fellow man, "Man is vile, and man makes nothing worth making, knows nothing worth knowing" (116). Yet even with this opinion, Castle removes himself from the civilized world, and serves the mankind for whom he expresses so much contempt by building a hospital in the jungle and tending to the medical needs of the natives. Perhaps in Castle, Vonnegut is attempting to show how one person can make a difference.
Another example of plain speaking is seen in Horlick Minton's address honoring the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy. He states his feeling that rather than the "manly jubilation of patriotic holidays," the day would be better spent "despising what killed them. . . the stupidity and viciousness of all mankind" (170). As Minton himself points out, this is not the type of speech expected of an ambassador. Still, he is compelled to speak what he feels almost as though he has a premonition that his time is short and he may never have another chance to make people see what they are doing to themselves.
It should be remembered that Cat's Cradle was written in a time when the fear of man's stupidity leading to his annihilation was not so far fetched. After all, the Cuban Missile Crisis was still fresh in everyone's minds, the cold war with Soviet Russia was ever present, and bomb shelters were naively considered to be the hope of man's salvation. In one last bid for humanity to strive for a better world, Vonnegut, through Minton, offers another vision of the world, "Think of what paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise" (171). Poisoning minds with humanity, attempting to make humanity see where their inhumanity is leading, to bring about a better world is a noble aspiration. One can only hope that at some point in history humanity learns something instead of nothing, and opts for Vonnegut's vision of paradise.
Jan MatneyVonnegut's Venom If one of Vonnegut's purposes for writing is "to poison minds with humanity" (qtd. by Scholes, per Griffin), then the weapon of choice in Cat's Cradle, is satire. Cat's Cradle "poison[s] minds" only by revealing the toxins that are already present in the system. Vonnegut's brand of satire serves as a sort of syrup of ipecac on human folly, and if we are "to make a better world" as he would have it, we should understand how truly virulent human enterprise can be.
Cat's Cradle holds no punches on conventionally held beliefs and opinions. Whether in regard to religion or science, business or government, sex or war, all topics are at the mercy of Vonnegut's lampooning. The issue of religion is certainly a major target for Vonnegut, and he ingeniously uses irony to satirize religious folly. Cat's Cradle introduces the new, non-religious religion of Bokononism, which, according to its own doctrine, is entirely based on lies (14). By merely asserting that Bokononism is a more truthful religion because it is based on lies, it becomes as error-ridden as any other religion, including Christianity. An example of this is in Chapter 3, not coincidentally entitled "Folly." Here, we are introduced to an Episcopalian woman who claims to "understand God and His Ways of Working perfectly" (13). When John (or Jonah) discovers that this woman cannot read a simple blueprint for a doghouse, he sarcastically suggests that she ask someone to get God to explain it to her, and in her anger at his effrontery, the woman fires him. John ends the chapter by stating "she was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is Doing" (13). All of this is correct according to Bokonon, we are reminded (13), but we mustn't forget that Bokononism is a religion based on lies.
Just as he attacks religion, Vonnegut assaults many things human in Cat's Cradle. His method leaves me, as a member of the human race, feeling fallacious and somewhat stupid. Assumptions regarding war, progress, selfishness, religion, and even altruism, must be re-examined upon reading this book. I believe this is the "poison" Vonnegut wants us to swallow, and this is the medicine that will affect change.
Beth LoweQ&A: Cat's Cradle Question #1
What is the "punchline" to the novel as a whole?
Cat's Cradle is set up like a series of comic strips, with satirical commentary found in the last "panel". What, then, could we conclude is the accumulative punchline for the entire novel? What does Vonnegut give us for his "last laugh"? If we attempt to answer this question, we must first try solving the answers to "what is the joke?" and "who is the joker?"
It seems Vonnegut's characters are the victims to the cruel "joke" of life. In Cat's Cradle he suggests that God is the joker. Like any good comedian, he must consider his timing and his audience. By using human beings that are always trying to understand it all in a scientific age, it becomes the perfect "set-up". His method of delivering the joke seems to be either through Religion or Science. In the novel, the more the characters try to find the meaning of life, the funnier and more absurd the joke becomes. And no one is laughing harder than Bokonon. Julian Castle quotes this poem from The Books of Bokonon after Jonah shrieks, "My God-life! Who can understand even one minute of it?"
- Tiger
got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand - If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, laying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who. (Vonnegut 127)
Bokononism is a witty, satirical retort to the methods that God uses to play his joke. Bokonon and his followers understand the joke and even play along. When the final "punchline" is about to be delivered (when the ice nine is released), the Bokononists, who seem to have always anticipated an end to this prank called life, willingly eat the ice nine and kill themselves.
The final panel of this black comic strip book is also, I believe, the final punchline. As Bokonon prepares to make himself a permanent reminder to God that he was in on the joke all along, he says: "I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who" (231). As readers, we understand the punchline only by fully understanding the joke.
Question #2
Are there any characters in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle that are not essentially hopeless?
Vonnegut introduces us to characters that are sometimes likable, sometimes humorous, but all the while deficient in some way. We can see this especially in the Americans. Jonah, the Hoenikkers, the Crosbys, the Castles and the Mintons all posses destructive shortcomings. Each tries to explain their world through institutions such as religion, science, or commerce. The natives to San Lorenzo are also not portrayed in a very magnificent way. They seem to suffer from a degree of apathy (this could be a result of their lack of free will). Whether they choose not to hope or try to find optimism through erroneous establishments, the characters in this novel are decidedly doomed.
This brings me to the final question…
Question #3
Are
the world and its inhabitants that Vonnegut portrays
worth saving? How does this impact our general attitude
towards this apocalyptic novel?
Terri Benedict
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut was written in 1963. "It is a satirical commentary on modern man and his madness" (back cover). It is a book that counters almost every aspect of our society. As well as satire, Vonnegut also includes apocalyptic elements in this novel.
Satire, "the use of irony, sarcasm, or ridicule in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice or folly" (Webster 1193), is very prevalent in Cat's Cradle. Vonnegut hits on many aspects of human life with this satire. Government, religion, medicine, and business are just a few of these aspects. In focusing on government, Vonnegut shows us a leader ("Papa" Monzano), who attempts to create a utopia, but just like in today's society, he makes promises to his people, and then fails to fulfill them. Ironically he allows the best for himself and his staff, while his people struggle. As well, Vonnegut attacks religion with his own creatively made up religion (Bokononism) which is nothing but lies. He shows religion and science to be contradictory where religion is based on satisfying lies, and science on horrifying truths. Vonnegut discusses science in great detail, specifically in regards to Ice-9. He shows irony in the fact that so many are focused on the creation of the destructive and devastating weapon; the atom bomb, when in fact, the more serious threat to humanity is the creation of Ice-9. This is ironic since few people know about, and most especially since it was created so marines would no longer have to walk in the mud. As well, Vonnegut focuses sarcastically on the illusion of love. He does this through the narrator Jonah, who thinks Mona can "make me far happier than any woman had so far succeeded in doing" (Vonnegut 64). Yet, this is humorous since we find later that Jonah does not really love her once he knows he can have her and that she will not give up her ways for him.
Other than satire, Vonnegut uses many apocalyptic allusions in Cat's Cradle. First, an apocalypse has to do with any universal or widespread destruction or disaster. Most often apocalypse is connected with the religious belief that there will be a Second Coming, and that it should bring hope to mankind. In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut does a wonderful job alluding to an apocalypse, as well as mocking the belief that a Second Coming will bring great hope to mankind. He alludes to the apocalypse through his mention of fire and ice. As most readers know, this is alluding to Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice." However, it could also be seen through the mention of the atomic bomb that could have brought the world to destruction by fire, and of course to the mention of Ice-9 which eventually does bring the world to destruction in Cat's Cradle. Finally, Vonnegut mocks the belief that the Second Coming will bring hope to mankind by ending his novel by allowing Jonah to read Bokonon's suggestion for the end of The Books of Bokonon. He writes:
Much like the game of cat's cradle, this novel can seem unbelievable and ridiculous. Like Newt says "No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look at all those X's…."
"And?"
" No damn cat, and no damn cradle" (Vonnegut 114).
It seems
to me that one must read this book that way also. Look
between the X's and see what is…and is not there.
Maybe then one can determine whether Vonnegut writes this
novel pessimistically or optimistically. For as we
already know, he does a remarkable job with the satire,
and black humor.
Christine Furgason
In 1963, Kurt Vonnegut published his second novel Cat's Cradle. It is a distressing yet satirical critique of our society and the surrealistic end that is its destiny. Through his use of irony and sarcasm he attacks and exposes society's flaws while questioning its intelligence. Nothing is safe from his satiric pen. He attacks science and religion with equal intensity. He creates a novel that has left, "an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers" (back cover).
Society has constructed many pillars (religion, science) to protect us from the unknown. Kurt Vonnegut uses satire to tear them down. He attacks religion through his false religion of Bokononism. It is a religion of "shameless lies"(5). Newt summarizes religion up best when he compares it to the cat's cradle. "Religion! . . . See the cat? . . . See the cradle?" Yet, perhaps the greatest attack on religion comes in the last paragraph of the novel. Bokonon himself says, "If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity. . . and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horrible, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who"(287).
The antithesis of religion is science. It is the provider of horrifying truths. Kurt Vonnegut satirical looks at how science will lead to the destruction of mankind. It is the scientist who created the atom bomb and it is the scientist who created Ice-9, yet the scientist refuses to take responsibility for it. Vonnegut satirically looks at the irresponsibility of the scientist through Felix Hoenikker who says, "Why should I bother with made-up games when there are so many real ones going on?"(11). He never understands that the games he is playing will have a disastrous effect on the human race.
This disaster comes in the form of Ice-9. Kurt Vonnegut creates a surrealistic view of the apocalypse. It is a new and strange world that Jonah returns to after hiding for a week in the bomb shelter. It is a world that could have been found on the canvas of a Salvador Dali painting. The earth is a blue-white pearl, and the sky is filled with worm-like tornadoes while the sun has become a tiny cruel sickly yellow ball (261). Perhaps it is only through a surrealistic eye that we can view and distance ourselves from this horrible end.
I feel
that one must read this book not as a pre-conceived
destiny, but rather as a warning. It is a wake-up call to
society. Question everything and accept nothing as truth.
While Kurt Vonnegut has used satire and surrealism to
create a novel about the end of the world, it is not to
be overlooked. We must question what we believe and act
because we should, not because we can.
Peter Galligan
(from Question #1)
Most modern novelists avoid the use of coincidence as a plot device, and such use of coincidence is looked on as trite and cheap. This was not always the case, as novelists of yore, Charles Dickens is a great example, have been known to throw in a suspicious coincidence at the very climax of the book that ties up the plot nicely but leaves modern readers feeling betrayed and deceived. Perhaps due to more literate, sophisticated readers, or just the maturation of the novel form, writers no longer have the luxury of plot coincidence. Modern novelists have to navigate through their plot with well-crafted character motivations, understated if any foreshadowing, and logical rising action. In other words, the reader has to feel that they could have known what was coming next, even if they really had no clue.
So why is Vonnegut exempt?
In Cat's Cradle, most of the plot revolves around the character's coincidental meetings and odd bits of shared history. Can such a plot be credible? And why, as readers, do we let Vonnegut get away with this circus of manipulation?
The most obvious reason that we let Vonnegut get away with it is because we are busy laughing. This is no coincidence. Vonnegut makes each coincidence so absurd that it's humorous. Instead of hiding the fact that a certain scene comes about as coincidence, he focuses on the coincidence, repeats it, creates another scene with it, whips us back around again, until the reader no longer thinks, "How convenient of all his characters to end up on the same plane." The reader instead starts guessing ahead, examining the details that might lead to more absurdity.
Vonnegut
also introduces a medium for coincidence early. If
Vonnegut waits until the plot thickens, heavy in
coincidence, to tell us about "Bokononism" and the
inexplicable nature of a "karass", he would quickly lose
credibility. Instead, he starts right away with an
admission that nothing in the book is true. Before
anything happens, he tells us about the religion founded
on lies. We aren't expecting logic to play a large part
in the book. With these lowered expectations from the
beginning, we easily and delightfully enter into
Vonnegut's world, where everything goes (and
usually comes back around to get us).
Cynde Reese
Kurt Vonnegut said in The Vonnegut Statement (1973), in an interview with Robert Scholes, that one of his reasons for writing is "to poison minds with humanity…to encourage them to make a better world" (107). This idea works quite well in Vonnegut's book, Cat's Cradle. It is a satirical story of a man's quest to write a book about the day the world ended (refering to the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima), which he never finishes. What we get is a raw look at humans trying desperately to find a sense of purpose in their lives through different means such as religion, science, etc.
Vonnegut uses satire that is both dark and humorous to pursue this point. A good example is found in the prelude of the book where he writes, "Nothing in this book is true. 'Live by the foma [Harmless untruths] that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.'"
Bokonon, we learn, is a religion that is made up of "bittersweet lies" (12). "Truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon [the creator of the religion] made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies" (118). We also learn that science takes the opposite opinion. One of the men who helped develop the atomic bomb tells us, "The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become" (36).
I think one thing that Vonnegut is trying to show us is that man too easily accepts things as valid without questioning. Refering to this, Newt, another character, says, "No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's…No damn cat, and no damn cradle" (114).
Cat's Cradle is full of these kinds of "poisons" not only about religion and science, but also about many other human frailties as well. In a way, Vonnegut is holding a mirror (that hides no imperfections) up to humanity in order that humanity might see its own the folly and futility and thus be impelled to try and improve. I think Vonnegut's hope is that this book will allow people to laugh at themselves while also making them think about how they are directing their own lives.
Here are a few more examples of Vonnegut's "poisons":
On politics: "I think that's the trouble with the world: too many people in high places who are stone-cold dead" (53).
On man's discovering the secret of life: "'what is the secret of life?' I asked. 'Protein,' the bartender declared. 'They found out something about protein'" (26).
On Julian Castle's view of man: "Man is vile, and man makes nothing worth making, knows nothing worth knowing" (116).
On
Bokonon's view of mankind: "If I were a younger man, I
would write a history of human stupidity" (191).
Damon Garr
The picture painted of the world and humanity by Kurt Vonnegut in Cats' Cradle is not a positive one. It is not the utopia that so many of the novel's character's are striving for. It is a ridiculous world where truths are based on lies and the balance of good and evil is a manufactured state. If Vonnegut's attempt is to "poison minds with humanity… to encourage them to make a better world," it is only through showing the reader the follies of man, the foolishness we live with daily, that maybe we can change our outlook and make a "better world."
Within the 191 pages of Cat's Cradle Vonnegut manages to slam nearly every mode of life, every motivating factor, every convention of modern man. The strongest attacks are on our ways to knowledge: science and religion. Science is shown as a field led by madmen who do not comprehend the consequences of their research and creations. Religion is shown as being all lies developed to keep man happy. The characters of the novel are not unscathed either. Most are shown as greedy, uncompromising, and unsympathetic. They are led by unknown forces to do bad things, foolish things. Vonnegut "poisons" the reader with these examples of mankind. He examines, with wit and comedy, the selfish and foolish nature of humanity.
One can look at the actions of the characters and their actions, along with the consequences of those actions, and draw from it a conclusion about the futility of living. Vonnegut can certainly be seen as a cynic for the image that he gives us of humanity. He takes it one step further, though, by showing us all of the absurdity of our modern lives. He wants us to see that we live by lies. Even the words on the page are lies. There is no truth. And in this way we are not bound to live the life that Vonnegut portrays. There may be a better end for us than there is at the end of Cat's Cradle.
Maybe
then it is possible for us, all of mankind, to make it a
"better world." With Vonnegut's poisonous attacks on all
our sacred systems he may be trying to show us that there
is a better way to live. I will continue to argue that
Cat's Cradle goes beyond satire, and gives us a
truly cynical look at the world and humanity. The only
hope that exists is in laughter, and the liberation of
knowing that everything we believe is lies.
Karrie Brown
Cat's Cradle poisons our minds with humanity, because of the satirical nature in which it is written. Vonnegut uses the religion of Bokononism, to relate the humanist relationship between man and man. The religion itself is based on humanist ideas, in that all humans are a part of a group and that we all have our own purpose in life but we need other to fulfill that purpose and give us guidance and direction. Vonnegut uses this satire to distinguish the characteristics of these so-called groups, and to show us, the reader, that in order to make this world a better place to live we need to approach things with an open mind and realize that we are not the only ones on this earth. The positive attitude that was taken when the ice-nine hit, was that of well, we have all the frozen food we need and we can survive with that, and we have each other, which was all they really had in the first place. Now it's just colder!
I think
that in reading, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle we put
aside the realism of our everyday lives and concentrate
on the apocalyptic view of this book. I have not been
able to read any other book written by him, but what I
see in this one, is an author who is trying to show us
that life is precious in it's own scary way. And when
you're not looking it can all be gone, so you should take
the time to meet people and to find your karass
and expand yourself with knowledge. The apocalyptic
concept of this work had me so scared that I wanted to go
out and utilize my skills and work with people to better
myself and them. I was so worried that I might not get a
chance to do that. Vonnegut put that notion in my head. I
was thinking that no one could have it rougher than I do,
but people do and I should be fortunate enough to realize
it and not take it for granted. Cat's Cradle
sneaks up on you and you don't really know why you feel
the way you do, but it really has a social impact when a
writer can make such a fictional world ending, seem so
real to the reader. It truly makes you think.
Kirsten Carlile
Kurt Vonnegut weaves satire and black humor effectively through his novel, Cat's Cradle. Webster's defines satire as "a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule and scorn." Encyclopedia Brittanica defines black humor as "a kind of desperate humour that seeks to induce laughter as the ultimate human response to the apparent meaninglessness and absurdity of existence."
The most obvious satire in the novel involves Bokonon and his view of religion. Vonnegut toys with the ideas of ritual and sermon that play such an important role in most religions. He almost seems to be making a mockery of the sacredness with which these are treated. For example, the Bokonist ritual of boko-maru is based on the following "Calypso";
"We will touch our feet, yes,
Yes, for all we're worth,
And we will love each other, yes,
Yes, like we love our Mother Earth."(109)
Vonnegut's satire of religion seems to be pointing to the fact that religion can be formed and perpetuated around any type of ritual or verse. No matter how basic or silly, as long as there are followers who are willing to believe in it and practice it, the religion will continue. Vonnegut appears to be making a statement about people's willingness to follow any religion that can give them the answers to how to live, how to die, and why they are here.
Vonnegut
uses black humor to point out how bizarre and disturbing
the human experience can be. When Phillip Castle's father
looks over the sea of bodies ravaged by the bubonic
plague and says, "Son, someday this will all be yours."
The reader has to laugh, in spite of the horror. There is
also some humor to be found in the sad, anticlimactic end
that the Hundred Martyrs of Democracy faced. Sent to
fight on the side of Democracy, on a ship bound for the
US where they were to be armed and trained, their ship
was sunk before they even had a chance to fight.
Vonnegut's point to these sadly ironic yet amusing events
is that everyone faces tragedy at some point or another
in their lives. To see the humor in the most devastating
situation means that you can go on, until the next
painful experience.
Brett Ganyard
Modern medicine has proved that the best way to prevent the contraction of a disease for humans is to inject a tolerable amount of the virus into the host and let the individual's immune system build a defense capable of withstanding future invasions of the same strand. The small pox vaccination, for example, has eliminated the disease from almost every nation on Earth.
But what if the disease is psychological, a way of being or state of mind rather than a physical aberration? My interpretation of Vonnegut's statement to "poison minds with humanity …to encourage them to make a better world" leads me to think that he would approach the problem with the same method. Inject just a bit of stupidity, naiveté, and prideful ignorance directly into the cerebellum so that, hopefully, gradually, humanity will wean themselves of these traits.
The technique must be subtle. The needle and syringe must appear nonthreatening or no one will take it. Therefore disguise the needle with cynicism and satire. The idea is to present forms of unwanted human behavior that all of us possess and practice throughout our daily lives and make the reader aware of them. Show the reader humans being human and make them aware of all the stupid, silly, rude things we do and say everyday. Consider the ignorance of Miss Pefko, who neither finds science the very antithesis of magic nor understands the meaning of the word antithesis, the rude curtness of Marvin Breed and Philip Castle, and the duping of the entire population of the Bokonon religion based not on God, but upon socialism and lies. Cat's Cradle is full of characters that display very human, very unwanted traits.
By
recognizing these traits and consciously thinking about
them, we might begin to choose our words a little more
closely and react to others with a more hospitable
demeanor therefore making "a better world." Now hold
still, the book will only take a second…
Sara Ann Hardesty
Vonnegut himself says that he writes "to poison the minds with humanity…to encourage them to make a better world" (The Vonnegut Statement 107). In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut not only poisons the minds of readers, but also infects them with humanity, lack of humanity, lies, truths, stupidity and arrogance.
His pen is the weapon from which the poison of his satire flows, lashing out at every possible human flaw. Nothing remains untouched or unscathed, including science, religion, art, sex and man himself. He uses satire, not to just merely point fingers and make fun, but to soften the blow of his poisonous message. Through his use of satire, Vonnegut makes the fatal mistakes of man appear so big, so vain, and so wrong, that you can't help but notice the grain of truth inside of it.
This is not a novel filled with the idea that mankind has no control over his fate, or with the message that the world is going to end. It is instead a statement showing that man is on the wrong track and that disaster is inevitable if action is not taken. Throughout the book it is made very clear that the actions leading up to the ice-nine disaster are solely the consequence of man. God was not responsible for the development of ice-nine, science was not responsible for "Papa" taking it, and fate was not responsible for the mass suicide that followed. All of the events were the consequence of an individual's action and his lack of responsibility.
Cat's Cradle weaves together a myriad of problems, all leading to one common answer. All of the characters blame their misfortunes, problems and failures on someone or something else, a common problem with humans. Vonnegut uses this to show that while blaming science, religion, or a Russian midget made the characters feel better; by not taking individual responsibility, the consequences appeared beyond human control. As Newt says, "No cat, no cradle," meaning that without cause you have no effect. For example, if Newt is blameless in the loss of his ice-nine, then he is blameless for the result of it being in the wrong hands. If Zinka holds no responsibility for having stolen ice-nine, then she is also not responsible. This in turn will lead to the idea that no one is responsible for the misuse of ice-nine. According to Cat's Cradle, no one is responsible for his or her actions, and therefore the outcome could not have been changed.
Yet Vonnegut does "encourage them to make a better world." By showing his reader the danger of not taking responsibility for the cause/effect relationship within the universe, he his painting a clear picture of the pitfalls of life. It is very clear that in Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut views religion and science as an excuse to not be responsible for individual actions. The Episcopalian woman in Newport believed that by knowing God, she knew everything, and yet lacked the ability to read a blueprint (13). Dr. Hoenikker hid behind that façade of science so that an institution could carry the burden of his inventions, and Jonah blamed Bokonon for the mass suicide, never once mentioning that each individual had a choice of whether or not to kill themselves (182).
Vonnegut's
use of satire coats the poisonous pen used to show his
readers the inescapable consequences of stupidity and
arrogance. Displaying the darkness and destruction of
mankind allows his readers to see where changes can be
made that would allow a better world to emerge.
Jason Alder
For this essay, I decided to pick two terms that describe Cat's Cradle. I felt that satire and fantasy were two terms that suited the novel quite well. The book qualifies as a satire because it makes a mockery of things that were of concern in the sixties. For example, the Cuban missile crisis was a big issue in the early sixties. Religion was taken much more seriously, and the family unit was more tightly wound. In the novel, the threat comes not from a large warhead, but from a small crystal of Ice-nine. Religion is satired in Bokononism, which is a religion that is based on lies. The family unit is satired by the Hoenikkers. The father is detached from reality, the sister is a giant, and the brother is a midget. The Cuban threat is also satirized by San Lorenzo and it's dictator Papa Monzano.
Cat's Cradle also has many elements of fantasy woven throughout. A small crystal that can freeze water and can destroy the world and can only be stopped by a temperature of 114 degrees is a good example of the fantasy element in the novel. It gives the story an almost futuristic feel, even though by modern standards the book is dated. Jonah's whole adventure is reminiscent of mythological tales. He journeys to a far away land, San Lorenzo. He is called to adventure by Newt's letter. He finds a mystical talisman, Ice-nine. He falls in love with the beautiful maiden, Mona. The religion of Bokononism has a fantasy element to it. Johnson changes his name to Bokonon much like in Buddhism. There are all the writings in the Books of Bokonon, and the Boko-maru which are both fantastic ideas in themselves.
Cat's
Cradle contains many elements of many types of
genres. It could be considered science fiction, farce, or
satire It has poetry, drama and fantasy. It is, perhaps,
the fact that this novel embraces so many different
genres that makes it so unique and still fun to read in
our modern day society.
Rachel McKinzie
Vonnegut has been quoted as saying that one of the reasons he writes is "to poison minds with humanity. . . to encourage them to make a better world." Cat's Cradle poisons minds with humanity through the characters, who all very effectively demonstrate humanity. Even though the book itself comes across as a surrealistic fantasy and the plot is sporadic and surprising, the characters seem very real. Jonah is a narrator, but he is also an audience, as he travels through the book just as readers do. Jonah was easy for me to relate to because he observed everything and nothing all at once.
Before he went to the island of San Lorenzo, Jonah was floating on a cloud, not really paying attention to too much detail. However, as he met more people on the island things started to click for him, and he was able to make sense out of some of the puzzle that would eventually become his book. Jonah also makes some dumb mistakes, just like humans do. I don't think that his agreeing to become the president of San Lorenzo was a smart move, but at the time all he could think about was marrying Mona, and that in itself was enough motivation for him. "Love is blind" is a very popular saying, and it rings true in most humans, and in this case, Jonah.
I thought that another very human character was Newt. He is the youngest sibling, and that's exactly how he is treated. Angela is like a mother hen, always telling Newt what to do and criticizing everything he does, but at the same time trying to protect him. Meanwhile Newt is very smart but has no real motivation, and why should he when he is going to be taken care of by Angela for the rest of his life. I like Newt because he does not feel sorry for himself, and treats everything matter-of-factly and as if it is obvious, "Isn't everybody [self-taught]?" Newt appears to be a person who does not care what everyone else thinks and always strives to be an individual.
I think
that the satire alone in Cat's Cradle is enough to
encourage humanity to make a better world. Vonnegut makes
things seem funny in the book that really are not funny
in real life, such as an atom bomb, a father who ignores
his child and everyone else, and an island where people
are hung for practicing a certain religion. The book is
amusing, but it made me think about what the world would
be like if it really was that way. It would be horrible,
and definitely nothing to laugh at.
Patrick Kelly
How does CC poison minds with humanity and encourage a better world?
I believe that Vonnegut uses Cat's Cradle as an allegorical tale about what will happen to the world if we are not careful with technology that has the ability to end life on this planet. He points out one of the qualities of humanity; that people make mistakes, thus poisoning our minds and encouraging a better world.
One of the obvious ways that Vonnegut uses this book to "encourage a better world" would be by showing that the end of world may come from an accidental release of technology. At the time when this book was written, nuclear war seemed to be an almost certainty. If we look at the number of bomb shelters being built and drills being conducted in classrooms during the late fifties and early sixties we would see evidence of that would point to the overall feeling in American society that the end was near. The nuclear genie was safely contained by the super powers. But I think that Vonnegut saw that all it would take was one small country; who possessed end of the world technology, to have an accident and it would spell the doom of mankind.
Vonnegut writes, when speaking of ice-nine, that "apparently the United States of America and Union of Soviet Socialist Republic had it....understandably surrounded by electrified fences and homicidal German shepards" (Chapt. 110). I believe that he was pointing out that the super powers of the world who have end of the world technology keep it very well guarded against theft or accident. However, ice-nine was also in the possession of Papa. All it takes is one suicidal leader and one accident by the San Lorenzo airforce to release ice-nine into the world, resulting in the end of the planet. Vonnegut seems to be demonstrating that although nuclear weapons are well cared for by the super powers, the technology is available to people who may not be so careful with it.
So, by
using this little analogy of ice-nine to nuclear power, I
believe Vonnegut encourages the reader to try to make the
world a better place. Vonnegut takes us through an
imaginary look at the end of the world. His apocalyptic
vision is littered with examples of the hypocrisy that
exist in San Lorenzo and he uses this give us a satirical
look at life in America. He points out to the reader that
human beings make mistakes and that technology exists
that may make one of these mistakes the one that ends the
world.
Jessica Reed
The very first words that I would use to describe Cat's Cradle are surrealistic and black comedy. Reading this book is somewhat like running through a Dali landscape. You can tell that things are not quite right, but it's just a little too blurry to tell why. This feeling is demonstrated beautifully in Cat's Cradle. Vonnegut has this amazing talent to slightly smudge the line between "reality" and fantasy, and Cat's Cradle certainly demonstrates that. He takes rather "normal" things, puts them in a blender, mixes them up and POOF! you have a world that, for some strange reason, makes sense. You laugh at morbidity and don't even question the possibility of a little substance called ice-nine.
There are many examples of surrealism and black humor in Cat's Cradle. One that I found rather bizarre was the "shrine" to Mrs. Hoenikker. A twenty-foot high alabaster phallus covered in mournful poetry and baring the single word MOTHER seems a bit odd to me. In fact, the entire Hoenikker family seemed to have walked straight out of a side show circus. The eccentric scientist father, the "horse faced" tall sister, the midget younger brother, the meticulous model building older brother, and the gone, but certainly not forgotten, mother paint a very strange family portrait.
Another example was Mona Monzano, or shall I say, the adoration of Mona. When John looked her up in San Lorenzo: The Land, The History, The People, he found somewhere around 19 entries, my favorite being "…tries to make self ugly in order to stop being erotic symbol to islanders, 80, 95f, 116n., 209, 247n., 400-406, 566n., 678." I also found ice-nine, its creation, and its eventual staring role to be both surrealistic and swimming in black humor. The idea that Dr. Felix Hoenikker would create the world's most destructive element just to prove that he could is laughable. The idea that the end of the world would come because a suicidal man's body plummeted into the ocean during an earthquake is both laughable and a bit humbling as well.
There is
really very little in this book that is not darkly funny
or surreal. Hazel Crosby, "The Hook," The Books of
Bokonon, the entire island of San Lorenzo…. the
list goes on and on.
Danielle Shook
Question #1: Why did Vonnegut choose the format of putting short chapters versus standard long chapters, as in most novels?
Answer: My guess would be that Vonnegut liked to be original and make a name for himself. While it could be justifiably argued that other authors want the same in their novels, Vonnegut exceeds this originality by composing short chapters of a page or so (sometimes even shorter).
In our class discussion, it was mentioned that "nearly all of the chapters end in a joke or a bitterly satirical comment, or both (Griffin 5)." In fact, most of these chapters are titled in such a way to include the joke or comment, which Vonnegut possibly uses as a mechanism to make sure that the reader understands what happened in the chapter without making the reader feel stupid for not getting it.
Another theory that I have is that it makes the book a fast read. As a result, this could have been a smart marketing ploy for his book. For example, if a reader sees that a book has short chapters, with less than 200 pages, they'll be more likely to read it. Even though Cat's Cradle was written during a time that people read more than watch television 1963 perhaps Vonnegut was one to think ahead and realize that a generation would soon come that wouldn't read as often as they did in the 1960s.
Question #2: How does religion compare/contrast in Cat's Cradle and The Damnation of Theron Ware?
Question #3: Is there any significance to the names in Cat's Cradle?
Answer: The reason that I ask this question is in reference to the Bokononist vocabulary that Vonnegut created. Only a man who could create such words as "Zah-mah-ki-bo" or "sin-wat" is bound to confuse his reader with such simplistic names as "Julian Castle" or "Hazel Crosby."
Charles Dickens often would create names of his characters to correlate with their behavior, which made me as a reader take a further look into the names of characters in books that I read.
When I
read the name of "Jonah," I was prompted to think of the
character of the same name in the Bible who got swallowed
by a whale in the Old Testament. While the
character goes also by the name "John," I couldn't help
but wonder if there was some similarity involved in this
novel.
Olivia Sprauve
I really really enjoyed this book!
I that Vonnegut deals a lot with fantasy in this book, throughout the entire book. From the beginning, he talks about the religion that he follows: Bokonism. This is not a real religion, however he has rules, songs, scriptures, and opinions of a person that practices this fantasy religion. Within his description of this religion however is black humor as well. I think that by him making up this whole religion and an entire island of people who follow it, is in a way mocking today's religion and the way that people are dedicated to their beliefs.
This Bokonism is basically telling the religious believer that everything that they read or hear is a lie, and that they need to think for themselves. I think one of the greatest parts that shows black humor is on page 77, where Bokonon (like Adam) arrives on land, completely naked, and has a revelation. "A fish pitched up By the angry sea, I gasped on land, And I became me."
Also I found it very interesting how it was illegal to practice Bokonism, yet everyone on the island, including Papa practices it. It's almost as if Vonnegut is trying to tell us how other religions are. . . and if any religion is a true and honest religion.
I think that
Vonnegut also deals a lot with surrealism. I just really
thought it was funny how everything in his life sort of just
fit together, like it was meant to happen. Like the Bokonon
worshipers, they believed that everyone fit in a karass and
all followed a similar life plan, rotated in, out, and
around each other. For example, I thought that it was so
interesting how everyone fit together. Jonah went on a plan
to find Frank Hoenikker, and who does he sit next to, but
the senator, who is reading a book, written by the man who
owns the hotel where Jonah stays, was in love with the woman
who Jonah is in love with, who is marrying Frank. Then Jonah
meets Newt and Angela on the same plan and they are all
traveling to find Frank and they are all Hoosiers. . . it's
just so funny how he played everything out in the book! I
really enjoyed it!
