Cat's Cradle Literary Analysis

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

Providing for your family and yourself is a important key to survival, in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry the Youngers know the true struggle of survival in the 1960s being an african-American family in a low income neighborhood. The family of five (soon to be six) living in a two bedroom apartment must share everything and live paycheck to paycheck. The play itself shows the hardships the family are trying to overcome poverty, but once they receive knowledge of a check that is, ten-thousand dollars, coming for Lena (Mama) Younger from the life insurance of the Youngers’ (Walter Younger Senior) deceased father. Since the coming of the check everyone seems to have their own plans for the check. The check changed everything, we

Other than satire, Vonnegut uses many apocalyptic allusions in Cat's Cradle. First, an apocalypse has to do with any universal or widespread destruction or disaster. Most often apocalypse is connected with the religious belief that there will be a Second Coming, and that it should bring hope to mankind. In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut does a wonderful job alluding to an apocalypse, as well as mocking the belief that a Second Coming will bring great hope to mankind. He alludes to the apocalypse through his mention of fire and ice. As most readers know, this is alluding to Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice." However, it could also be seen through the mention of the atomic bomb that could have brought the world to destruction by fire, and of course to the

Most of the book was set on the island of San Lorenzo. Kurt Vonnegut did this so that he could create a new religion, Bokononism. Bokononism is a ridiculous religion, yet all the people of San Lorenzo put faith in it. It is not the truth of a religion that matters; it is the hope that you draw forth from it. A woman says, "I just have trouble understanding how truth, all by itself, could be enough for a person.

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.

The final way in which Kurt Vonnegut satirizes religious themes is with the apocalyptic ending of Cat's Cradle. In Bokononism, it is prophesied that the boat that brought Lionel B. Johnson and Earl McCabe to San Lorenzo, the Lady's Slipper II, would sail again right before the world ended (Vonnegut 109). Ironically, that is the only prophecy to be proven correct; every other prophecy made by established religions is wrong. Ice-nine, a creation of scientist Dr. Felix Hoenikker, causes water to freeze at very high temperatures. If a tiny seed of ice-nine reaches any surface water, all the water on the planet would freeze, just like this conversation between John, the narrator of the book, and Dr. Breed, Dr. Hoenikker's boss, states:

What is religion? There is no one correct answer, however, one definition that seems to cover every aspect of most established religions is, "…the most comprehensive and intensive manner of valuing known to human beings" (Pecorino). In Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut takes this definition and creates his own religion in order to satirize all others. Bokononism, Vonnegut's contrived religion, is built on foma, or harmless untruths. Bokononists believe that good societies can only be built by keeping a high tension between good and evil at all times, and that there is no such thing as absolute evil (Schatt 64). They have created their own language with words such as karass, a group of people

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.

    Cat's Cradle is, "Vonnegut's most highly praised novel. Filled with humor and unforgettable characters, this apocalyptic story tells of Earth's ultimate end, and presents a vision of the future that is both darkly fantastic and funny, as Vonnegut weaves a satirical commentary on modern man and his madness" (Barnes and Noble n.pag).  In Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut uses satire as a vehicle for threatened self-destruction when he designs the government of San Lorenzo.  In addition, the Bokonists practice of Boko-maru, and if the world is going to end in total self destruction and ruin, then people will die, no matter how good people are and what religion people believe.

“Is there, then an evil that is innate, that is the little piece of monster in all of us.” (Cusatis). Every person has two sides, no one is completely good or completely evil. In the East of Eden, John Steinbeck uses a biblical metaphor to illustrate the innate good and evil that humans encounter. The novel includes several characters that are purely evil or do evil deeds. The Trask family is directly correlated to the Garden of Eden and other biblical narratives. “Steinbeck puts more into his stories than Genesis 4” (Fontenrose). Steinbeck illustrates the concepts of good and evil, family, and love to describe the frailties of the human experience.

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,

Our parents always told us that we should have goals and dreams in our life, and through them we will gain happiness. There are some things in life that get in the way of our dreams and goals. In the Declaration of Independence, It states that we have the right to pursue happiness. For example having everybody in the world be equal, and not be shamed upon or looked at differently due to the color of their skin. The poem ¨The Negro Mother,¨ the play A Raisin in the Sun, and the article Innocence Is Irrelevant, all show how our society and they way people can get in the way of our happiness.

His works are significantly influenced by that genre, but contain strikingly relevant commentaries about contemporary American society which set him apart from other science-fiction writers. His use of science fiction draws a humorous contrast between the all-important significance of the nature of the universe and of reality, and the insignificance of human life and society. All of his works emphasize the enormous forces acting on his characters, not the least of which is fate. As his writing progressed and matured, this stylistic nuance became more and more evident. In his book Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut describes his own style by means of Tralfamadorians, an alien race for whom time is nonexistent, and whose literature reflects this:

“To realize the American Dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It is a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard it is possible.” However it is not always guaranteed. A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a family who continues to struggle while reaching towards The American Dream. The American Dream is described as “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” The Youngers are a hard-working family who all have different interpretations of the American Dream. Mama, Walter, and Beneatha’s shared powerful dreams that give the a look into The American Dream. Despite

Cats in the Cradle, a song by Harry Chapin, was a very popular song back in 1974, that featured in Top One-Hundred charts around the world. The song was intended to be a poem, but its deep lyrics and smooth rhythms led it to become one of the most successful rock songs of its time. ‘Cats in the Cradle’ depicts the story of a father, and the life he had with his son. As good as that may seem, the song is about how the father was absent from his son’s life, and how he taught his son to grow up just like him. The song’s message is felt by fathers across the world to this day and reminds them to take advantage of every day they spend with their sons. The message is that time is precious, and if you fail to build a solid relationship with your son while they are young, it could be too late to recover once they have grown up.