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Cats Cradle Life is a struggle to defy the inevitable. Since the beginning of time man has contemplated his own death, labored over the meaning of life, and created religion to explain all that he can not understand. Death at some point will catch up with all of society and at some point the entire world as human beings have come to know it will come to an end. No one can hide from death or attempt to out run its ever-expanding claw; death is absolute.
It is possibly the only certainty in all of human existence. Whether the sun explodes sucking itself into its own infinite gravity, or human beings finally manage to destroy this beautiful planet, life will end. All great societies have come to tragic anti-climatic ends. The fact that currently the nuclear arsenal of the United States alone could easily destroy all of earth leaves many fearing that the end is near. The contemplation of ones eventual demise leads one to think that life is no longer worth the effort to live. In Cats Cradle the destruction of the world is realized by the invention of a substance capable of freezing all water on earth.
Its inventor was a peaceful man, a man who invented for the sake of discovery, for the sake of the human race. It was only after his death, that the greed and stupidity of man allowed this substance to end all man has struggled to create. Throughout human existence mans disregard for his home and his environment is evident in all aspects of cultural. This disregard for the frailties of nature will eventually lead to the death of all humanity. Technology has come a long way during the 19 th century, and has impacted the lives of every single person on earth. Most of our technological advances have been positive and have helped in developing our society as we know it today.
However, technological progress also has downfalls. Things have been created in recent years that could ultimately destroy all of mankind. This theme is discussed in two works, Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Dr. Strangelove which was produced by Stanley Kurbick. In the novel Cats Cradle, the world could have been destroyed by a substance called ice - nine.
In the movie Dr. Strangelove, the world is ended by the Doomsday Machine. Both of these things were created by man, as technology progresses. Both of these works try to show what can happen if such things as ice - nine and the Doomsday Machine are placed into the hands of someone who does not understand how much damage they can actually do, and how powerful these creations are. This concept is best explained by Vonnegut. He said in Cats Cradle.
In the novel, Felix Hoenikker creates a substance known as ice - nine. If this substance were to be exposed, the entire world would freeze. Hoenikker only made a small amount of ice - nine just right before he died. The substance was divided and given to his two sons. Nobody seemed to know Hoenikker very well let alone his children.
Hoenikker was described as being as different as a man from mars. Hoenikker was smarter than the average person, and seemed to have brilliant ideas. Hoenikker's ways explained why his children were so unusual as well. At the time of Hoenikker's death, nobody knew that ice - nine actually existed. Most scientists just knew of the idea, but never thought that such a thing was actually created. However, once Hoenikker's children got a hold of ice - nine this all changed.
Almost everyone knew about the existence of ice nine after awhile, and this was in no way a good thing. Ice - nine could destroy everything on the earth if it fell into the wrong hands. It would only take one small mistake by someone who was not properly informed of the dangers of ice - nine to the world. To Hoenikker's children, ice - nine was merely a plaything. They were not as educated as their father, and therefore did not have as much understanding of ice - nine as he did.
With this in mind Vonnegut asks the question, what hope can we have for mankind? In his novel he compared men and women to children who thought of ice - nine as a plaything. Hoenikker was being irresponsible when he placed the existence of mankind in the care of children. In Cats Cradle, Hoenikker's sons found it difficult to keep the wonders of ice nine a secret. This was also true in the film Dr. Strangelove.
Most people were not able to keep the Doomsday machine a secret either. The whole point of the Doomsday Machine is lost if it kept a secret. If nobody knew about the Doomsday Machine, than nobody would feel threatened by it, and therefore, in a sense it becomes useless. As time progresses, mankind becomes more and more sophisticated.
The technological universe is expanding as we speak. Each day researchers work to find cures for things like cancer and AIDS. However, each day researchers also work on things that could eventually end up killing us all. The atomic bomb has all ready been created, and unfortunately used. The effects of this were devastating. It is quite possible that in the near future, another bomb may be used, this time the effects might be even more drastic.
There is no way of telling what these things that we have created ourselves might someday do. It will only take a short amount of time for something like a nuclear weapon, or maybe worse, to slip into the hands of someone who does not fully understand the consequences of their actions. It will not take long for the entire world to be destroyed by a singe mishap. Things that can destroy the world are not safe with anybody, and there is no way to tell who will come in contact with them. In Cats Cradle John winds his way through the events that eventually lead to the destruction of the human race. John is the narrator of the story who is writing a book about the day the first atomic bomb was used against Japan.
He intends to show what the important people who built the bomb were doing on that day. Felix is one of the inventors mixed up in the Manhattan Project, but he has no realization of any of the implications of his work. He is a genius, even to the extent that he has no concept of common sense or reality; he approaches everything as a child would approach a game. In such a way a theme of science was is present in Vonnegut's work and this is how the author relates the cradle to science.
Life to John is a quest; a quest that is defined finally by his new found religion Bokononism. He feels that everyone in his life revolves around him as they all search for something of meaning in their lives; this group is called a karats. Life is a gift that is never solicited and often unappreciated after given. Human emotions are often the catalyst behind extremely destructive actions. The religion Bokonism, which was homegrown, is has symbolically many cat's cradles.
Two perfect examples are the karats and the granfalloon, each of them an organization of people. The karats is Gods a group to move society; this grouping is a cat's cradle, since it there is no need to try to discern who is in your karats and who is not, which results in emptiness. Granfalloons are groups set up by humankind, which make relationships between people of a prime importance; however, these are groupings of people who false, because they were made up and set up together by man, which also results in purposelessness. (Irving) Nevertheless, Bokononism teaches that life is nasty, that life is short, and that human beings are basically stupid primitive being destined for failure. Through these teachings they learn to except the faults of man and actually come to better their lives and themselves.
In Vonnegut's book the only animal species to survive is the ant. They have accomplished this remarkable task through lack of any emotional attachment for each other. Since all the water on the planet is frozen the ants must form a ball around the ICE- 9, melt it with their body-heat, drink the freshly melted water, and then eat the ones that had died from direct contact. Fascinated, John sat for hours studding the behavior of the ants. He wondered how the ants had figured that they themselves were a source of food.
The cycle of life will continue as long as some life can be viewed as an expendable commodity. To destroy one for the continued life of many is accepted only if all emotion is removed from the situation. Vonnegut is using various Cats Cradles to focus on his opinions of the importance of science in our lives and also focuses on the nuclear arms race. Nevertheless, he does not depict science as he does religion when it comes to the symbolic string figure. The theme of science is the antithesis of the theme of religion, in which people commonly view science just as a game that has no sense, because of this the Cats Cradle appears when people really should carefully plan out the movements of science. This idea and the adverse apocalyptic affects of untamed science are explained by the author using roles of Felix Hoenikker and his children.
Vonnegut in his book made a perfect exploration on the destruction of the human race. His book had several themes that are very important for each human; however, the theme of science and its comparison with essence of life, in my opinion, is the most interesting and valuable. Vonnegut's perceptive realization of how truly ignorant society truly is proves startling. To explore this subject in the setting of a culture that lacks what we could call civility creates a people much more dependent on faith, rather than power and wealth. Society will perish, most likely from its own creation, and when that day comes no one will realize all the mistakes that have been made until it is way too late. Metaphors used by Vonnegut to depict the Cats Cradle can be applied to almost any part of human life.
They explain what is culture, government, religion, marriage, or an endless number of various aspects of society. Religion could just be a comforting game designed with harmless lies to allow humanity to maintain any its sanity. Cats Cradle is a book of mans stupidity (Cats Cradle, p. 191) In Bokonism God gives no meaning to the world, but man asks the meaning. God only shows that if there is any meaning of life then humans must give a meaning to everything. See the cat?
See the cradle? (Cats Cradle, p. 122) Bibliography: Vonnegut, Kurt. Cats Cradle. 1963 Irving, John. Kurt Vonnegut and His Critics. New Republic, 1979.
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Research essay sample on Meaning Of Life Cats Cradle
