Cat's Cradle

                                  "Story Overview "

   Cat's Cradle was the story of a man named John who was writing a book about what people were doing the very day and hour that the firsrt atomic bomb was dropped. The story is set shortly after World War II, and is influenced greatly by the Cold War arms race.

       The main character sets out to interview Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the primary inventor of the atomic bomb. He is trying to write a book about how the bomb has changed lives. In the process of writing the book John becomes familiar with Dr. Hoenikker's three children Newt, Frank, and Angela. In the process of research John learns that each child was gifted with part of a powerful world destroying weapon, before Dr. Hoenikker died. In his pursuit of information about this weapon John ends up on a strange island called "San Lorenzo". This island is ruled over by a cruel dictator called "Papa". There is no system of punishment on San Lorenzo aside from "the hook", a large steel hook upon which any transgressors are impaled.

        John meets Frank on this island, who is working for Papa as a city planner. John lives with Frank and the other two children on San Lorenzo, and familiarizes himself with the people. He quickly learns that there is an underground religion called "Bokonism" , which a majority of the citizens practice secretly. Papa and the Prophet "Bokon" are at odds for the alliegiance of the people of San Lorenzo. The religion is a breed of Stoicism, yet every member including Bokon himself admits freely that the religion is nothing but lies.

       Events eventually play out so that John discovers the secret weapon to be "Ice Nine". It is a top secret version of ice, invented by Dr. Hoenikker, that only thaws at very high temperatures. When it comes in contact with other water or ice it infects it turns everyone to Ice Nine. We learn that all of the three Hoenikker children have sold theirs for somthing they wanted. Angela gave hers to her husban so that he would love her, and he in turn sold it to the American governent. Newt gave it to his russian lover, who in turn dumped him and sold it to the USSR. Frank gave his to Papa in turn for a well paying job.

       The story takes a strange turn when Papa dies and Frank is thrust into the position of the new ruler of San Lorenzo. Frank is afriad of this position and offers it instead to the main character John. He accepts. During his innaguration ceremony a jet fighter looses control and crashes into the castle by the ocean. As the castle falls into the ocean the Hoenikker children and John escape but Franks/Papas piece of Ice Nine falls into the ocean. It instantly freezes the ocean, in fact all the oceans in the world. The party is turned into the apocolypse.

       Living in the post-apocolyptic world proves tough but not impossible for the small group of survivors. They boil ice nine and find food from the town and thaw it. Life is extremely dangerous for these survivors becasue a single mistake could kill them. If they were to touch the frozen ground and then touch their mouth they would instantly freeze. 

      John finally comes to meet Bokon, who asks John to take him to the top of the islands tallest mountian and leave him there to die.

                                                                 "Themes"

          The main theme in this book i was science and religion, and how they play with or agianst each other. In the book both Papa and Bokon turn out to be essentially on the same side. They work together to make the people happy. The society makes the religion illegal and thus it is fun and excting to participate in it. The religion would be nothing if it were legal , becasue there would be no excitment in it. If there was no religion however the people would begin to complain and riot about the poor living conditions of San Lorenzo. The book showed how unchecked science can be terribly dangerous, and it also revealed Vonnegut's view of religion as pack of lies that exist simply to give poor masses hope. In the end the story was a kind of cynical or satirical view of how stupid the US/USSR arms race was. With both countires rushing  to discover better ways to kill people, they never stopped and asked what would happed if they acutally used these weapons. I found numerous times in this book the idea of "just becasue we can dosent mean we should."

                         

                                                "Author and Background"

           Kurt Vonnegut was raised in Indiana by his father and mother. He was educated as a chemist at Cornell and soon after joined the army. He fought in World War II and served time at a concentration camp. His time in Europe undoubtedly infuenced his books, and their theme of "the futility of war". He was rescued from Dresden by the Red Army in may of 1945. He later wrote what is probably his most famous book, from his recolections about the concentration camp. "Slaughterhouse 5" When he returned to America he worked as both a journalist and Anthropologist. Cats Cradle was his first book of note and was published in 1963, followed by Slaughterhouse 5 in 1969.

             He was a man full of humor, wit, and contradictions. He was a lifelong smoker and often called his habit "a classy way to commit suicide." He died from brain damage inflicted by a fall down a flight of stairs in his home. He wrote a speech for his son to read before he died. In his classic and immortal humor he ended it with "thank you for your attention, and im outta here." He was a great man who excellent at conveying a serious message with ironic or even humorous mediums.