Story and Characters

                                        “Cat's Cradle”


          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 first 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 allegiance 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 and everything to Ice Nine. We learn that all of the three Hoenikker children have sold theirs for something they wanted. Angela gave hers to her husband so that he would love her, and he in turn sold it to the American government. 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 here on San Lorenzo.
  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 afraid of this position and offers it instead to the main character John. He accepts. During his inauguration 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 apocalypse.
  Living in the post-apocalyptic 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 because 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 mountain and leave him there to die. He is a small skinny man who look similar to Ghandi. Since all the people are dead and Papa no longer needs him he has no reason to live. He died atop the mountain with his completed version of the “Books of Bokon” under his head, and so the book concludes. The other survivors and John are assumed to continue living meaningless lives until they give up or starve. The book ends with the strange idea of human greed and how so many people had an opportunity to destroy ice nine but they never did. Everyone used it for their own selfish gains and now everyone was dead. Neither Hoenikker or his children ever stopped to consider if they should do what they were doing, they simply knew they could.