"Cat's Cradle"

Paper Summary:

To understand the point of the humor in "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, it is necessary to examine the point of the story itself. All of Vonnegut's books touch on broad social issues in a rather cartoonish way that serves a much darker and difficult purpose than what they appear to address. Like Breakfast of Champions, and Hocus Pocus, Cat's Cradle, is a humorous take on the organizations and social structures that the world holds as absolutes with the angle that such things do not exist - all is arbitrary. In this work, we find that there is a brilliant combination of lampoon (in the form of the polarized roles taken by the two friends who created the island nation dictatorial politics and religion, Bokononism; which are intended to oversimplify the arbitrariness of politics and religion) and of black humor (which is clearly marked in the violence, deprivation, and oppression that are used only to perpetrate the lie that is the society). Irony, perhaps, is the constant of every event and passage in this book. It is irony that makes us understand that the humor in the story is a rather caustic, disbelieving, and disenchanting look at our own and every other society.

More papers on "Cat's Cradle":

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• Analytical Essay # 47520 : "Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle"

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