Bokononism In Cat's Cradle

The story ‘The Cradle Will Fall’ is a very intense story with lots of twist and turns.

Irony is a very big part of a story, because it can create new elements in a story. Some of these elements may include humor and theme. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a great example for this.

In Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut investigates the negative impacts that can result from humanities pursuit of knowledge through literary structure, irony, and symbolism. Kurt Vonnegut, well known for his pessimistic attitude and writing concerning the flaws of human nature, focuses this energy into Cat’s Cradle. Using satire interweaved with poetry, Vonnegut is successful in challenging the merits of human progress.

Although irony may be associated with negative events or actions, it can also be a sign of good for characters within stories. According to Dictionary.com, irony in literature is defined as “a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.” The use of irony is found within the novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini uses irony to portray and develop the main dynamic character in this story, Amir. Most of the major events Amir is faced with at a younger age seemingly come full circle when he reaches adulthood. Irony plays a role as Amir lives through tragic events that ultimately teach him how to become a better person.

Irony is described by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result”. “Ransom of the Red Chief”, as short story written by O. Henry, is full of all types of irony. In this short story a boy, Johnny Dorset, is taken by two kidnappers, Sam and Bill. Ironically, by the end of the story it is the kidnappers who pay ransom to the father. In “Ransom of the Red Chief”, there are many examples of irony which help to enhance the story. Throughout this tale, there are multiple examples of situational, dramatic, and verbal irony.

Another example is in act 3, scene 2, page 6/7. When Puck puts the love juice in Lysander’s and Demetrius’s eyes. The audience knows that Lysander and Demetrius have the love juice in their eyes, but they don’t know and Hermia and Helena don’t know. This is another example of dramatic irony because we the audience know about the love juice and nobody else does. This irony adds tension to the story because Hermia is now mad at Lysander because he doesn’t love her anymore, Helena thinks everyone is making fun of her, and Lysander and Demetrius now both love Helena and are willing to kill each other over her. Now even with this example, there are still many examples of

Besides the obvious, a German prisoner becoming friends with a young Jewish girl, there are still many other examples of irony.

An example of this is the Jews of Sighet thinking they were being herded into the ghetto and forced on a train for their safety, when it was really for their demise. These people were trusting that this was for the good of them, but the total opposite was the goal of the Nazis and the opposite of what happened. A second example of situational irony is the decision to leave the hospital in Buna before the evacuation. Elie and his father had the opportunity to stay in the hospital or to leave and join the evacuation. They left thinking that they would kill everyone in the hospital, but when the Russians came, they saved everyone who was in the hospital. The final example is at the end when the resistance stormed Buchenwald and saved the prisoners. All Elie wanted to do was eat which should have been healthy for him, but he almost died from food

The idea works and the religion spreads to almost every resident of San Lorenzo. The citizens of San Lorenzo stop their threats and are happy (Schatt 62). The Books of Bokonon are a satire of other religious texts because, as nearly everyone knows, most religions have some sort of holy text. Judaism has the Torah, Christianity has the Bible, Islam has the Koran, Hinduism has the Shrutí, etc. (Wilson). Who knows who wrote these religious scriptures and why? The Books of Bokonon was written for political gain (Schatt 62). Johnson, the author, becomes a crazy, disheveled, cynical, old man while he continues to write (Vonnegut 286-287). Maybe the Torah, Bible, Koran, and Shrutí are just some ancient man's way to influence and control the masses. The Books of Bokonon are just one way in which Vonnegut satirizes religious themes.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is a satire on the state of world affairs in the 1960's. Vonnegut made a commentary in this book on the tendency of humans to be warlike, belligerent, and shortsighted. The main character of the book, the narrator, is certainly not a protagonist, although the modern reader craves a hero in every story and the narrator in this one is the most likely candidate. Through the narrator's eyes, Vonnegut created a story of black humor ending in the destruction of the earth.

An example of dramatic irony would be when Baba tells Amir that the only major sin one can commit is theft. His quote that depicts this would be, “When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.” This is ironic because Baba himself withheld the fact that Amir and Hassan were half-brothers, meaning he stole his friend’s wife, as well as Hassan’s right to a family. He lectures Amir on moral and integrity, but refuses to admit to his own mistakes, which results in him living a false and immoral life. The irony in the relationship between Baba and Amir is that Baba tries to pass down positive traits to Amir, and Amir attempts to inherit those traits by trying to become more like Baba, but the most significant quality they both come to share is betrayal. Both father and son deceive their friends in different ways. Baba steals his friend’s wife while Amir refuses to help Hassan, and abandons him after doing so. Another one of Baba’s quotes that portrays irony would be, “Believe me that there’s no one you’d rather have at your side than a Pashtun.” This is also ironic given that Amir didn’t help Hassan while he was being bullied by Assef and the other kids despite being a Pashtun himself. The story starts off with an irony because while Amir’s motive for getting the kite was to make Baba proud, his father would’ve actually been disappointed if he had known about Amir’s betrayal to Hassan. “In a moment, I'd blink and rouse from this beautiful dream, get out of bed, march down to the kitchen to eat breakfast with no one to talk to but Hassan. Get dressed. Wait for Baba. Give up. Back to my old life. Then I saw Baba on our roof. He was standing on the edge, pumping both of his fists. Hollering and clapping. And that right there was the single greatest moment of my twelve years of life, seeing Baba on

Throughout his career, Kurt Vonnegut has used writing as a tool to convey penetrating messages and ominous warnings about our society. He skillfully combines vivid imagery with a distinctly satirical and anecdotal style to explore complex issues such as religion and war. Two of his most well known, and most gripping, novels that embody this subtle talent are Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. Both books represent Vonnegut’s genius for manipulating fiction to reveal glaring, disturbing and occasionally redemptive truths about human nature. On the surface, Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are dramatically different novels, each with its own characters, symbols,

Irony is usually termed as a technique or way or presenting a topic with one meaning, not disclosing to the reader that a totally different thing has happened. For instance, one might say it is ironic to save up the money to buy your dream car and it sells minutes before you get there. In the mind of someone like Edgar Allan Poe, irony can take one a far deeper meaning. One piece of irony is the name of the victim, Fortunato. This is an Italian word suggesting good fortune. (Cummings, 2005) However, we know from the beginning of the story that his fortune is not good. The more one looks for it, sometimes the more minute the irony can be. Take the description of Fortunato:

People watch other individuals experience irony all the time. When something is ironic it means that the thing that was to happen, did not happen the way it was thought to happen. Sometimes irony happens to those who least expect it or irony happens to everyone. There have been songs, television ads, and stories written about irony or that have included ironic events or details. One piece of literature that contains a lot of irony is Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”. Crane uses irony in many different ways in the story to tell of four individuals who survive their ship being wrecked and everyone else aboard has drown.

Evidently, in both situations this irony is used to show the wrong nature of humans in any setting, whether it is an isolated or regular society.