Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Bruce Bassi
May 20, 2002
Living in La-La Land

Is there sense to believing that which has no proof while doubting that which has been proven? Logically, no, but people sometimes consciously act illogically in order to have meaning in their lives. Apparently, the necessity for meaning in life is more important than is the necessity for life to make sense. This senselessness is evident in Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, which details basically two categories of people: the scientists, and the non-scientists. The scientists have proven that the world was created by a means not involving a god, yet the non-scientists (and some scientists, too) still believe in a religion where God created life. Even when people are warned that religion is all founded in lies, they still believe in its concept. A calypso of Bokononism, the religion of Vonnegut’s creation in Cat’s Cradle, summarizes the untruths of religion in a short poem:

I wanted all things
To seem to make some sense,
So we could all 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 (90).

Vonnegut, in essence, is revealing human nature to hide, or to ignore the negative aspects in life. Ignorance, then, is bliss. People often either blatantly disregard truths or choose to exist naively in upholding certain beliefs to provide themselves with temporary satisfaction. When the calypso speaks of “this sad world,” such a description not only refers to San Lorenzo, but to everyday life. Vonnegut provides proof for such a negative conclusion by revealing artificiality in Bokononism, childhood rhymes, and literature.

Jonah, the novel’s narrator, turns to The Books of Bokonon to find spiritual comfort. Devout Bokononists believe in and live by this scripture, The Books of Bokonon, as Christians believe in and base their lives around The Bible. The first page of The Books greets the reader with the warning, “Don’t be a fool! Close this book at once! It is nothing but foma!” Foma, according to Bokonon, are lies. The scriptures instantly present themselves as fraudulent. Everything contained in the text, then, should, logically, be taken lightly as fiction. Yet people seem blind to the very first page of their whole holy book.

Immediately after Bokonon declares that the book contains foma, he claims that God created earth (177). So although people could logically infer that God is fictitious, Bokononists still believe in a god. Vonnegut, in presenting people as such blind followers, is criticizing human ignorance; people know God does not exist, but yet still believe in Him to give themselves meaning in their lives. Humans do not like to feel alone on Earth; knowing that a superior being created humanity assures people of an afterlife. In Cat’s Cradle, Jonah, like all the other Bokonists of San Lorenzo, reads the first page, but continues to read the rest of the book. His motivation to gain spiritual consolation is much stronger than is the warning on the first page to divert him from reading the rest of the books.

Just as The Books of Bokonon are filled with lies, the title of Vonnegut’s book, Cat’s Cradle, implies that the book contains meaningless, false information. Vonnegut states, “Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either” (14). The title is significant because Felix Hoenikker, the inventor of the Atomic Bomb and Ice-nine, made only one attempt to communicate to his son, Newt, through a rhyming game called the Cat’s Cradle. One must use imagination to see either the cat, or the cradle, because neither exists; the entire game is meaningless. Newt searches for meaning in the Cat’s Cradle, as does the human race search for meaning in Cat’s Cradle. At large, Vonnegut is criticizing political philosophy, religion, and national identity, claiming that they are only a game of Cat’s Cradle-a game without a point or an end.

Truth is distorted in most of our literature. Jonah has so much pride in his writing profession that he does not acknowledge the absurdity of his beliefs as Bokonon does. Jonah believes that his writing provides his readers with consolation, truth and morals. People rarely realize how much of newspapers is false, yet when people recognize articles as being about themselves, they recognize how far the article is from the truth. Writers mask reality with material that creates a surreality, making their words sound more pleasing, and presenting life as not as bad as it actually is. When Philip, a Bokononist and a writer, wants to call for a strike by all writers, Jonah replies that writers were obligated to “produce beauty and enlightenment at top speed.” People have become so reliant upon literature that the absence of literature may have a detrimental effect on human kind.

People are raised, starting at childhood, to jointly believe lies and to use their imaginations. Since untruths are commonly integrated into human life, difficulty arises in differentiating between fact and fiction. However, even when people are warned that what they are about to read is all comprised of lies, they still continue to believe because they are searching for consolation in a world that may leave them inconsolable. Lies allow life to be lived in a more pristine state than the soiled existence that is fully realized truth. But is a constant game of virtual reality really life? Jonah and Kurt Vonnegut would have to disagree.