Kurt Vonnegut's Cats Cradle Analysis
Ben Fisher
Mr. Anderson
AP Writing and Composition 1
14th November 2012
Cat's Cradle American Author Analysis by Ben Fisher
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction book that was published in 1963. The book is (falsely thought to be)centered around the narrator, John, and his quest to write a book about what was happeneing with the creators of the atomic bomb the day the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. His adventure follows his travels as he meets with researchers, the children of a fictional Dr. Felix Hoenikker, and ventures to an island nation to talk to the good doctors final son. Along this course, he explains a religion he does not yet have, as this is from a post-experience diary perspective, called Bokononism, and its practices. He gains knowledge of this religion and its creation on the island of San Lorenzo, which resolves in him becoming president. But this is a side plot of the book. The main plot, hidden in the background, is centered around a ficticious substance called Ice-Nine, with the power to freeze all the worlds oceans in the blink of an eye if it were to touch a single water source, an expression of mans' ability to destroy the things that surround him. Cat's Cradle is set in an unknown year more than 20 years after August 6th, 1945. At the beginning, John visits Ilium, New York to talk to Dr. Asa Breed at General Forge and Foundry, the place in which Felix Hoenikker “worked”, which leads to his discovery of several key locations in the area. The later half is focused on the fictional Carribean island of San Lorenzo, an island nation started by Earl McCabe, a marine deserter, and Bokonon, born Lionel Boyd Johnson, who created Bokononism. These settings leave a sense of a tight dichotomy between modern America and the Caribbean nation of San Lorenzo. Though the concept of the book within, about the bombing of Hiroshima, and a freeze frame of the events of that day, reveals a young nation holding infinite power in a
Mr. Anderson
AP Writing and Composition 1
14th November 2012
Cat's Cradle American Author Analysis by Ben Fisher
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction book that was published in 1963. The book is (falsely thought to be)centered around the narrator, John, and his quest to write a book about what was happeneing with the creators of the atomic bomb the day the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. His adventure follows his travels as he meets with researchers, the children of a fictional Dr. Felix Hoenikker, and ventures to an island nation to talk to the good doctors final son. Along this course, he explains a religion he does not yet have, as this is from a post-experience diary perspective, called Bokononism, and its practices. He gains knowledge of this religion and its creation on the island of San Lorenzo, which resolves in him becoming president. But this is a side plot of the book. The main plot, hidden in the background, is centered around a ficticious substance called Ice-Nine, with the power to freeze all the worlds oceans in the blink of an eye if it were to touch a single water source, an expression of mans' ability to destroy the things that surround him. Cat's Cradle is set in an unknown year more than 20 years after August 6th, 1945. At the beginning, John visits Ilium, New York to talk to Dr. Asa Breed at General Forge and Foundry, the place in which Felix Hoenikker “worked”, which leads to his discovery of several key locations in the area. The later half is focused on the fictional Carribean island of San Lorenzo, an island nation started by Earl McCabe, a marine deserter, and Bokonon, born Lionel Boyd Johnson, who created Bokononism. These settings leave a sense of a tight dichotomy between modern America and the Caribbean nation of San Lorenzo. Though the concept of the book within, about the bombing of Hiroshima, and a freeze frame of the events of that day, reveals a young nation holding infinite power in a