Cat’s Cradle

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

If humans strive to fulfill their void, of a lack of meaning in their lives, their foolishness will blind them from the truth. Kurt Vonnegut portrays his inner emotions and feelings of the insignificance of religion through the characters of his novel, Cat’s Cradle. His satiric approach to a subject that many people base their daily existence upon, challenges the readers’ faith. People who search for a deeper meaning in their lives become more confused. Only to become entwined in the Cat’s Cradle of life.

In the beginning, the reader is warned: “Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either” (5-6). The theme throughout the entire novel is that religion is based on lies to give people something to believe and find meaning in.

Vonnegut created a religion in his novel, Bokonism, founded by a man named Bokonon. Through lies and short poems, Bokonon spreads his religion to the people of San Lorenzo, a small desolate island with no future. “All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.”(5)

Vonnegut, through the ideals of Bokononism, gives the reader insight into the notion that all religions are based on lies, and un-truths. When Bokonon, christened Lionel Boyd Johnson, arrived at the Island of San Lorenzo, he saw the place as a disaster, which would yield no economic wealth or prosperity. The only way that he saw possible for of this place to become a utopia was to invent lies in which the people could base their existence. These lies would convince the people that they had a much better life then they actually did, keeping the structure of the island alive. An example of one of Bokonon’s short poems:

“I wanted all things

To seem to make some sense,

So we all could be happy, yes,

Instead of tense.

And I made up lies

So that they all fit nice,

And I made this sad world

A par-a-dise” (127).

Bokonon explains his reasons for creating the lies on which his religion is founded; he makes the peoples lives more wholesome. People have always searched for meaning, meaning that science has not been able to provide them with. So the people therefore turn to higher forms of meaning, i.e. religion; despite the fact that it’s constructed to give meaning when no such meaning exists. Bokonon’s reason why man searched for meaning in life is as follows:

And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. “What is the purpose of all this?” he asked politely. “Everything must have a purpose?” asked God. “Certainly,” said man. “Then I leave you to think of one for all this,” said God, and he went away. (265).

The oblivious relationship between this story, of how humans were created, and the story of Adam and Eve, from the bible, is a religious satire. Vonnegut uses this to prove his point that religion is based on un-truths that explain the un-explainable.

Throughout Cat’s Cradle, religious references are cleverly portrayed through the situations that take place as the book progresses. Felix Hoenikker was “the father of the atomic bomb” (131), more than he was the father of his own children. His scientific work caused him to neglect them; however his lack of morals allowed him to continue his work uninterrupted. He was a scientist who had no quest for meaning, but a quest for truth. “What is sin?” (17). Felix was oblivious to the destruction that his creation of the atomic bomb had caused, having no moral obligation to the lives of the people that he destroyed. “…He was practically a Jesus, except for the son of God part” (67)

Jesus created a