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Chapter 123
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cat’s Cradle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Morality
Religion
Governance, Politics, and Nationhood
Absurdity and Meaninglessness
Summary
Analysis
John hates to see Hazel finishing the flag because she wants him to put it on the peak of Mount McCabe when it’s done. John goes to see Frank, who has constructed an ant farm, which seem to be the only insects that have survived. The ants wind themselves around grains of ice-nine to melt it and produce water; this act kills some of them, but allows others to drink water (and eat the ant corpses). Frank admires the ants’ talent for “cooperation.”
Hazel wants John to conquer Mount McCabe and claim it for America—of course, it’s a wholly pointless thing to do. The survival of the ants is indicative of the fact that, even in a nuclear annihilation that wipes out the human race, some life will probably survive (and then thrive without humans to hold it back). Frank’s admiration for their cooperation only highlights the chain of failures that have brought about the world’s destruction.
Themes
Frank marvels at the ants, wondering “who taught them how to make water.” He feels that he has “grown up a good deal,” and that people can longer “bluff” him and take advantage of his lack of self-confidence. John suggests glibly that “the mere cutting down of the number of people on earth would go a long way to alleviating your own social problems.” Walking away, John remembers a quote from Bokonon: “beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.”
Frank has no sense of moral responsibility for what has happened, even though it was his ice-nine that brought about this situation. Bokonon’s quote highlights that the usefulness of knowledge depends on what people do with it. Dr. Hoenikker undoubtedly advanced human knowledge, but he did nothing to advance the race more generally. In fact, it has evidently regressed to a less civilized state.
Themes
