Cat's Cradle: Project Report

Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat's Cradle. United States. Holt, Rhineheart and Winston: 1963.

Though reading this novel was a project requirement, I was previously yearning to read this classic. Cat's Cradle, is a first person, satyrical, anti-war book. The novel takes place on both the island of San Lorenzo and the United States. Many of the events are shaped around the book's original creation, in the mid-sixties, but most ideas in the novel can be applied to current war times.

The main character, John, is composing a book about the creation of the atom-bomb. John chooses to write the book based on the events that occurred to those involved with the deceased creator of the bomb, Dr. Felix Hoenikker. Throughout the book, John meets many different odd characters that affect the author's perspective of the Doctor. Along the way, the narrator begins to get involved in a religion, Bokonism, which was started by a Calypso singer. This dominant, yet illegal religion, helps shift many ideas into a conclusion.

I feel that the most interesting character in the whole novel is that of Dr. Hoenikker's boss, and close colleague, Asa Breed, even if he is not a crucial character. Breed quaintly states in his first appearance that even though he was Hoenikker's supervisor, there was nothing he could do to control the man. This is one of the first of many statements from the character that lead to Vonnegut's strongest character development ever put on paper. Asa unravels to be a man who, even after losing the love of his life to his colleague who proceeded to ignore her love, considers his rival, Hoenikker, to be a great man. He is able to put aside Felix's responsibility for his wife's death and remember the man in a positive light.

This book helps unravel the mystery of practical application. The whole theme of the book deals with the idea that anything can be used for war. Felix is considered one of the most pacifist scientists who only wants to learn for the sake of learning. Unfortunately, the government, displayed by the same democracy that dropped the technology, will always find a way of taking knowledge from scientist's hands and turning them into something to gain an upper advantage in a battle.

Like all of Vonnegut's novels I have read, I enjoyed this novel immensely. Vonnegut never betrays his satyrical sense of reality and his ability to express it. The author has the ability to weave in ludicrous religions and ideas to create an added element of sarcasm and pessimism. Even if the writing was a little less coherent than that of Slaughterhouse-V, it is obvious why this book was Kurt's breakthrough novel. I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a good book.