Themes

                                                        "Themes"
  The main theme in this book i was science and religion, and how they play with or against 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 exciting to participate in it. The religion would be nothing if it were legal , because there would be no excitement 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 countries rushing to discover better ways to kill people, they never stopped and asked what would happed if they actually used these weapons. I found numerous times in this book the idea of "just because we can doesn't mean we should."