Response To Kurt Vonnegut's 'Galápaos'

Charles Darwin includes an effective beginning for his work, Natural Selection. By introducing his theory with a set of questions, interest to continue reading is developed. One question Darwin poses is the possibility of how one can survive, taking into account the circumstances of climate and traits. An interesting concept Darwin alludes to is that some individuals possess certain traits that enable them to survive. Another method implemented in the beginning of Darwin’s piece is the broadness of the context. Darwin does not go into any specifics right away, as the reader will learn more as they continue. “Let it be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life” (Darwin 900). Darwin accounts for how unique each organism is, but generalizes the statement by categorizing all organisms as complex. By doing this, the reader is inclined to continue

For this essay, I decided to pick two terms that describe Cat's Cradle. I felt that satire and fantasy were two terms that suited the novel quite well. The book qualifies as a satire because it makes a mockery of things that were of concern in the sixties. For example, the Cuban missile crisis was a big issue in the early sixties. Religion was taken much more seriously, and the family unit was more tightly wound. In the novel, the threat comes not from a large warhead, but from a small crystal of Ice-nine. Religion is satired in Bokononism, which is a religion that is based on lies. The family unit is satired by the Hoenikkers. The father is detached from reality, the sister is a

At the beginning of his book “Your Inner Fish” Neil Shubin asks this question: “How can we visualize events that happened millions, and, in many cases, billions of years ago?” There were no eyewitnesses, Shubin says, no humans were around. The percentage of organisms that have been fossilized is very small and only certain species will ever be fossilized because of where they were located. However, this information did not intimidate Shubin on his hunt for his precious fish bones. Neil ties in the theory of evolution to explain how although life on Earth is widely diverse, all species have common ancestors. With the fish bones, he aimed to show how evolution caused one of the great transitions life has ever made- the transition from the ocean to land. Shubin, after six years, finds what he was looking for with the discovery of the fossil named Tiktaalik. This particular fossil is an intermediate between fish and primitive land-living animal.1

War is a virus, a plagues our world and has experienced since the early ages of time. Once a war is cured a new strain begins stronger and more unforgiving as the last. Humans are creatures of habit which continue the violence. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, slaughterhouse-five, is a deliberate and well developed statement against war as expressed through the tone, rhetoric, and characters, making anti war a prominent theme through the entirety of the novel. Slaughterhouse-five advocates for the prevention of war and all the terrible consequences that follow.

For the millions of years that organisms have survived in the Earth’s superficial environments, they have adapted to their surroundings in order to survive. This concept of evolution is firmly asserted with who survives and who is left behind to perish. Many discoveries have affirmed that humans as well as plants and animals have developed over thousands of years to postpone their eradication through various growths. Everything from the segments in their spine to the smallest bone in their ear is a collaboration of their predecessors and their environment. Dr. Neil Shubin has uncovered a new adventure that changes the way that evolution is thought about through his book, Your Inner Fish.

In the early sixties, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. released his candidly fantastical novel, Cat's Cradle. Within the text an entire religious sect, called Bokononism is born; a religion built on lies, absurdity, and irony. The narrator of Cat's Cradle is Jonah, a freelance writer who characterizes Bokononism as being, "free form as an amoeba" (Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle, 3). It is boundless and unpredictable as the unconscious itself. Bokonon lives on the impoverished island of San Lorenzo where he spends his days scribing poetic calypsos in the books of Bokonon. Jonah arrives on the same island in his pursuit of Frank Hoenniker, the military commander and son of the eccentric Dr. Hoenniker, who invents a substance

Plausibly the most convoluted manifestations of the human ego, the internal debate between what one desires and what is deemed morally correct has perpetually perplexed human beings since the genesis of mortal conflict. During these scenarios, it is not uncommon for overbearing emotions like paranoia or vindictiveness to eclipse logical rationale; however, in order to successfully confront this conflict, tame his passion, and fulfill his obligations, man is compelled to disregard the lasting consequences of his actions. In his satirical novel entitled Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut presents a realistic, yet farcical, cast of characters who delude themselves into zealously pursuing private passions—such as religion, romance, and science— whilst

This conversation really stood out to me while I was reading the chapter. Kurt Vonnegut was able to connect the dreadful history of our past with important current problems of our present. In this time period of this conversation, Billy is with his wife, Valencia Pilgrim, at their honeymoon. Throughout the book, Valencia is described as an extremely good-natured woman. However, she is slightly large in size and is extremely conscious of it. As you can see, despite the fact that the book was written in the mid-1900s, beauty standards have been imposed on women since the beginning of time.

I believe that Vonnegut uses Cat's Cradle as an allegorical tale about what will happen to the world if we are not careful with technology that has the ability to end life on this planet. He points out one of the qualities of humanity; that people make mistakes, thus poisoning our minds and encouraging a better world.

“No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat’s Cradle is nothing but a band of X’s between someone’s hands and little kid’s look and look at all those X’s… No damn cat and no damn cradle,” Vonnegut writes is his appropriately titled book Cat’s Cradle. A cat’s cradle is a string trick we all grew up learning and seeing, and it is just as Vonnegut described, nothing. Everyday we experience things like a cat’s cradle; we experience insignificant objects, feelings, or idols that we base our life on. We base and change our lives off of things with no real significance. Kurt Vonnegut’s novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five demonstrate the ineptness of the human race to base our life and happiness

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born to third-generation German American parents in the city of Indianapolis, year 1922, November 11th. While at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Vonnegut was heavily involved with the school’s daily newspaper, the first and only daily high school newspaper in our nation. During his time at Cornell University, Vonnegut became the school paper’s senior editor. World War II then began, and so Vonnegut joined our nation’s armed forces. Mother’s Day came in 1944, and during this time while Vonnegut was home on leave, his mother committed suicide. Later on while in the army, Vonnegut was sent to Europe where he was captured and made into a POW by Germans. He witnessed the 1945 bombing of Dresden, which was later

Will Rogers once said “We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.” This quote is what we should strive for in reality but in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, “Harrison Bergeron”, and “All the King’s Horses” this is the exactly the opposite of what occurs in his stories. In “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, the earth is overcrowded, people live forever, the same politicians have been in office forever and no one recognizes each other’s rights. In “Harrison Bergeron” the people of America don’t even have any rights; they are “equal” in all aspects of life and in “All the King’s Horses” people are being used as chess pieces and not as human beings.

And this is where I come into the story. The "survival of the fittest" is one phrase which people actually tend to misinterpret. They assume "fittest" to mean "fitness" as in "physical fitness", when in fact, at this stage, individuals such as myself would, to a much larger extent, surpass those who have fallen into said abyss. The mind is the greatest asset that humanity has, and only through its power, and the grace of God, can we strive to be better than we are.

Now these principle are existed since the day one of the creation of this life form. By “survival of the fittest” Darwin did not mean that the toughest will survive, the swiftest will win, the smartest will succeed, or the biggest will dominate. What Darwin meant was something far different. Darwin said that the organism that best “fits” its environment had the best chance of survival; hence, the term “survival of the fittest.” The plant or animal best “fitted” to its natural environment, according to Darwin, would be the most likely to survive and thrive. Charles Darwin Theory from the 19th Century the 'survival of the fittest' is highly demonstrated in the Alien movie as in the desire of the aircraft crew -- the humans -- to control a superior been -- the alien -- with technology as their environment in the mission to capture and transport the creature. And in the character of the alien to perpetuate its species using the humans' body as a vessel for its offspring. The “survival of the fittest” is better translated in the movie as the one who would better capacity to control superior specie. As perfect society will be a place which completely negates the principle of

Garreau, Joel. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies- and What It Means to Be Human. New York: Random House, 2005. Print.