Symbol Analysis
The basic symbol of a cat’s cradle made of string is a huge topic in this novel, especially through the eyes of the character Newt Hoenikker. First, it symbolizes the basic ideas of both religion and science in the sense that they are very complex things that have grown from the simplest of things, the string to the cat’s cradle. Also, those complex structures in their entirety are unable to be seen, at least through Vonnegut’s eyes, an this is exemplified by Newt saying over and over again, “See the cat? See the cradle?” The author is saying how ridiculous that all those big ideas are, if someone can’t see the hole picture, is it helping them?
Another reason that a cat’s cradle is a good symbol for Vonnegut’s ideas is that it goes in a vicious cycle, the same few steps repeated over and over. This is like Bokonon saying in one of his books that history is a vicious cycle, where people never learn from their mistakes, or those made in history that could be looked back upon and avoided in the future.
Quote Analysis
“What can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?”
“Nothing.”
This is, very bluntly, what Vonnegut is saying whit his satire in this novel. He is warning people that if things keep continuing on the way that they have been, there will never be hope fro anything; no progress in science, religion, government, or anything else. The quote is given soon after John learns that the Hoenikker children gave away their ice-nine for personal gain. He wonders why Felix Hoenikker could make something so possibly destructive, and leave it for his “short-sighted children.” Things have continued to become worse and worse; scientific discoveries have become more destructive and people have fewer values and morals, so with more dangerous weapons and more dangerous people, there is nothing that a “thoughtful man” can hope for in the future.
This is this shortest of the Books of Bokonon, and most directly to the point. It is meant to be simple and slightly scary to those who read it. It is possible that Bokonon’s hope with this book was that people would be scared and maybe try to fix things, or at least start by fixing themselves.
Thoughts
Cat’s Cradle is very different than any other book that I have ever read, in the sense that it really made you think about what Vonnegut wanted you to think about. It wasn’t just spelled out on the page that he was satirizing science and religion and the dangers of each, you had to read farther into the book to find that out.
While the plot was slightly predicable (especially the idea that, somehow, ice-nine would “end the world”), I enjoyed all of Bokonon’s ideas an terms that were found throughout the book. My favorite thing, though, were Bokonon’s Calypsos. They were short, but they very well got out all of Vonnegut’s core ideas; that religion can sometimes take precedent over government, even though both are a bunch of lies, and that lies are the only thing in the world that can be completely trusted to do what they have been set out to do.
