The Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922 - 2007) He served in the US army during WWII, and was captured shortly after the Battle of the Bulge. He escaped with the other POWs because of his working underground during the allied firebombing of Dresdon, Germany. This experience was extremely influencial in the making of his novels, including Cat's Cradle. His pacfist ideals were motivated by the immense amount of death at Dresdon, and later in life Vonnegut suffered from mental instability. He attempted suicide in 1984, but failed. He is known as a science fiction writer, mainly focusing on the huge mistakes that humans make and the potential of mass destruction that humans create through the furthering of technology.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catscradle/context.html http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9520329&part=0  |
FCA's: Matt Georgian 1. Information is presented accurately. May 4, 2009 2. Choice of assessment is appropriate and thoughtful. Per. 6 - 10H 3. Assessment reveals an insightful understanding Mrs.MacDonald of the novel. Independent Reading #3  Novel's Background: Vonnegut was interviewing scientists from GE about their research when he came upon a man, Irving Langmuir, who made discorveries that interested Vonnegut, but knew would never be passed onto further scientists. Langmuir was the model around the character of Dr. Felix Hoenikker in Cat's Cradle.
|
Plot:
An author in the book, and narrator of the story, John, interviews important Americans to try and find out what they were doing on the day that the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He meets and speaks with the Hoenikker family, with the father, Felix, being involved in the development of the atomic bomb. John learns of one of Felx's inventions through Asa Breed, called ice-nine. This substance can turn water into ice at room temperature. John quickly realizes the potential destruction that ice-nine could cause, and asks Asa if the substance was ever perfected. Asa denies that ice-nine became a reality, but John is not so sure. John's fears become realized when it is revealed that upon Felix's death, his ice-nine was divided up evenly amoung the Hoenikker siblings. John, Angela and Newt all go to the island of San Lorenzo. John goes to interview Julian Castle, while Angela and Newt go to celebrate their brother Frank being engaged to Mona, who is the dauther of the island's dictator, "Papa" Monzano. The island is extremely poor, with the natives being cut off from any wealth. Most of the natives worship Bokononism, which is illegal to worship on the island. Ironically, "Papa" Monzano worships Bokononism. The reason is, when Earl McCabe and Bokonon came to the island, they wanted to somehow raise the standard of living on the island. By introducing a system of beliefs for the people to follow and then outlawing it, the people on the island were given some kind of pride and excitement to live by. Ever since then, all the rulers of San Lorezno followed in this manner. Frank is bribed by "Papa" Monzano to take the position as next dictator for his piece of ice-nine. Monzano uses the ice-nine to commit suicide, because he finds that he has terminal cancer. Frank then gives the job of presidency, and his marriage, to John. Monzano commits suicide, which is found to be caused by swallowing the ice-nine, and John finds that Felix's research was completed. Newt and Angela admit to selling off their share of ice-nine as well, and the four go about melting what fragments of the substance they can. They take a break to watch a ceremony, and during the ceremony a plane crashes into a cliffside above Monzano's castle. It creates a landslide, which drags most of the castle and Monzano into the sea. His body, upon hitting the water, turns all of the oceans on Earth to ice-nine. The surviving natives on San Lorenzo all commit suicide using the ice-nine, and Mona is included with them. John lives in a cave for months, and writes a story about what occured, which ends up being the book Cat's Cradle. His final points made in the book were on the stupidty of humans.
Characters:
John Felix Hoenikker Frank Hoenikker Angela Hoenikker Newt Hoenikker Asa Breed "Papa" Mozano Mona Mozano Julian Castle Earl McCabe Bokonon Horlick Minton |
Theme:
The Human Element: Humans can be stupid and have unlocked the very real potential to create mass destruction through silly mistakes upon furthering research and technology
Conflict:
The conflict of the story is, that the power of ice-nine could never be kept in check once it was released to human beings. The original use for ice-nine was the freeze mud for the use of soldiers traveling, but the stupidty and evilness of the human mind makes the use of ice-nine much more deadly.  |
