Where's the Cat? Where's the Cradle?
Kurt Vonnegut
More than a decade after his death, Kurt Vonnegut remains one of America’s most beloved writers. His impressive catalog spans a variety of genres and subject matter, while consistently delivering his signature black humor, his keen, “extraterrestrial” perspective on humanity and his profound wisdom.
INTRODUCTION —
While Slaughterhouse-Five remains Vonnegut’s most read and most famous book, Cat’s Cradle, published six years earlier, may be his best. The “diet-sci-fi” tale is absolutely chock full of riveting observations, symbolism and metaphor. Though it’s a relatively short book, clocking in at just under 300 pages, and filled with almost laughably short chapters, many of which are less than one page long, Cat’s Cradle is straight-up gushing with deep and captivating material. In the coming weeks, I’ll be publishing a number of essays covering some of the topics in Cat’s Cradle which I find to be the most intriguing. Below is a somewhat detailed synopsis of the book, replete with spoilers, that will give some context to the essays to come. While I intend this to be a useful summary that will make the coming essays understandable, I implore you to read the entire book before going any further. First-hand experience with Vonnegut’s quirky style and manner of speaking is necessary to fully appreciate the layers of meaning behind his work.
One of the predominant themes of Cat’s Cradle is mankind’s curious compulsion to assign meaning to as many mysterious, or otherwise unknowable aspects of life, nature, and the cosmos as possible. The irony of investigating the meaning of a book that laughs overtly at our desperate need for meaning is not lost on me.
— SYNOPSIS —
Cat’s Cradle relates the story of our narrator, John, who asks that we call him Jonah, as he sets out to write a book of his own, a nonfiction account of the day the the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. “The Day the World Ended” was to be a book which focused on the “human side” of the day and specifically on Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the (fictional to us, non-fiction to Jonah) father of the atom bomb. In his research, Jonah seeks correspondence with Felix’s three children, Angela (the oldest), Frank (who’s currently missing), and Newt (the youngest, a “midget”). Early on, Jonah is able to get in touch with Newt, who offers his perspective of the fateful day. But, as Newt was only six at the time, and he’s unable to contact either of the other children, Jonah decides to travel to Ilium, NY, and visit the research laboratory where Felix did much of his research.
While in Ilium, Jonah meets with Dr. Asa Breed, who “supervised” Felix in his research at the research facility. Breed admits that while he was Felix’s supervisor in title, neither he, nor anyone else truly directed Felix’s research endeavors. In his conversation with Jonah about Felix, Breed lets slip an anecdote regarding Felix’s creation of “Ice-Nine”, a catastrophically dangerous chemical compound, a single drop of which would (if it were real-- Breed insists it’s not) freeze any water-based solution with an extremely high melting point (114.4 F). Jonah is horrified to find that the same man who had an integral hand in creating the atom bomb also pondered the creation of Ice-Nine, a compound with infinitely more destructive potential. Breed becomes irritable and agitated at Jonah’s fearful reaction to his description of Ice-Nine and tries to convince him that the compound is purely theoretical, though of course that’s not actually the case.
After an interesting, but ultimately unsuccessful visit to Ilium, Jonah returns home and shelves his book project. Not long after, he catches a break while reading a newspaper where he finds a picture of the “missing” Frank Hoenikker in a travel ad for the Caribbean island republic of San Lorenzo. Frank appears to be a high ranking official in the San Lorenzan military. Also pictured is Mona Aamons Monzano, an absolute dime, who Jonah falls in love with immediately.
“As it was supposed to happen…”
“As it was supposed to happen”, a magazine assigns Jonah a story about Julian Castle, a sugar magnate who operates on San Lorenzo. Delighted at the opportunity to further investigate the intriguing Hoenikkers, Jonah catches the first flight to San Lorenzo. Unbeknownst to him, the plane picks up Angela and Newt Hoenikker on a layover in Puerto Rico. While on the plane, Jonah meets Horlick Minton, a career diplomat, and his wife, Claire. Horlick is reporting to San Lorenzo to assume his newly appointed post as American Ambassador to San Lorenzo. Also on the plane is H. Lowe Crosby, a bicycle factory owner from Chicago who is travelling to San Lorenzo with his wife, Hazel, to determine whether or not to move his operations to the island nation.
During the plane ride to San Lorenzo, Jonah peruses a book about the island that the Mintons had been reading, which was written by Julian Castle’s only son, Phillip. The book details a some of the history of the island nation and introduces Jonah to the mysterious religious figure Bokonon and his religion, Bokononism. According to the book, Bokonon, born Lionel Boyd Johnson on the island of Tobago, arrived on San Lorenzo with a U.S. military Corporal McCabe after they were shipwrecked on a journey from Haiti to Miami. The two became de facto conquerors, wresting control of the island and its inhabitants from the feudal enterprise of Julian Castle and his sugar company. It’s revealed that the island has endured a tumultuous history and that ruling entities on the island have come and gone with much frequency and little fuss. There is simply nothing on the island worth fighting to maintain control over. Johnson and McCabe set out to be different than previous conquerors of San Lorenzo and committed themselves to creating a utopian society, rather than exploiting the island and its inhabitants.
In order to try to do this, Johnson and McCabe decided that they should create the illusion of tension between the two of them. McCabe assumed a traditional leadership role and claimed the title of President of San Lorenzo, while Johnson, conversely, became “Bokonon”, creating a religion which he and McCabe agreed to immediately outlaw, thereby giving its teachings more “zest”. Bokonon went into hiding, reinforcing the appeal of his off-limits religion and writing The Books of Bokonon, the new religion’s scriptures. He and McCabe believed that by creating two opposing factions, the natives would be galvanized in their support of either McCabe’s rule or Bokonon’s teachings, and that this “dynamic tension” would strengthen the entire nation. But the system failed rather quickly. McCabe began to resent his role as the “bad guy” and eventually killed himself. In the years following, Bokonon remained in hiding while a string of new Presidents came and went leading to the incumbent leader “Papa” Monzano, Frank Hoenikker’s employer and Mona Aamons Monzano’s adoptive father.
When Jonah’s flight arrives on San Lorenzo, he, along with Newt, Angela, the Mintons and the Crosbys, are greeted ceremoniously by “Papa”, Frank, Mona, and a huge crowd of natives in the island’s lone city, Bolivar. It quickly becomes evident that “Papa” is old, feeble, and ill, and that his rule is likely on the verge of coming to an end. Frank, the heir apparent, is set to wed Mona the next day, which happens to be The Day of the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy, San Lorenzo’s most important holiday.
However, Frank, whether wisely or foolishly, seems to recognize that he is unfit for the role of President. Much to Jonah’s surprise, Frank offers the position to him, insisting that he’d be a better fit and that Frank would back him up as an advisor. Frank also admits that there’s a catch--that if Jonah accepts the job, he’ll have to marry Mona instead of Frank. Jonah’ interest is piqued and he agrees without much deliberation.
The next morning, “Papa” Monzano is on his death bed. Frank, in order to ease “Papa’s” suffering, administers a small amount of Ice-Nine to him from a supply that Frank had been in possession of since the day of Felix’s death years earlier, when he, Angela and Newt had split Felix’s supply of (very real) ice-nine amongst themselves after finding their father frozen in a wicker chair on his porch. As it turns out, Angela and Newt have their supplies of Ice-Nine with them on San Lorenzo as well. With “Papa” expired, Frank, Jonah, Angela and Newt turn their attention to The Day of the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy ceremony, which is about to commence. A number of dilapidated fighter jets, comprising the bulk of San Lorenzo’s “Air Force”, fly in formation loaded with ordnance that they’re to unload on a number of targets representing “Enemies of Freedom” across the mountainside beneath the ceremony attendees. However, one of the planes, visibly smoking, breaks formation and crashes into the mountainside. It’s bombs detonate, causing a landslide which rapidly sinks much of the crowd along with the deceased “Papa” Monzano, whose ice-nine-filled body finds its way down to the ocean, where it contaminates the waters, unleashing Hell.
“She puts her contaminated finger to her lips and joins them in death.”
Jonah manages to make his way to safety with Mona in an oubliette beneath “Papa’s” castle. They hide out in the make-shift bomb shelter for a week before the chaos above seems to subside. At that time, they cautiously venture out into the frozen, yet hot and muggy wasteland that’s become of San Lorenzo. After wandering the bleak landscape for some time, they come upon a mass of frozen bodies, where a large number of natives huddled together before desperately consuming Ice-Nine together and committing mass suicide. Mona is distraught at the sight. She puts her contaminated finger to her lips and joins them in death. Jonah later finds the Crosbys, along with Frank and Newt, who had all managed to survive in other shelters. The group spends the next six months together, subsisting on the bounty of frozen meat and canned food from the capital. It is during this time that Jonah writes this book. One day, while driving into Bolivar with Newt, they pass Bokonon himself on the road. Jonah pulls over and speaks with Bokonon, who shares with him that he’s finished The Books of Bokonon and allows Jonah to read the final paragraph.
