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Chapter 17
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
In Dr. Breed’s office, John begins to question him. Despite John’s best efforts, “every question I asked implied that the creators of the atomic bomb had been criminal accessories to murder most foul.” Dr. Breed takes offence at the line of questioning, saying John seems to think that scientists are “indifferent to the fate of the rest of the human race.” He laments that people don’t understand what “pure research” is.
“Murder most foul” is one of many allusions to Shakespeare, in this case to Hamlet. That particular play seeks to deal with the question of the meaning of life, a question which also runs throughout Vonnegut’s novel. John’s natural morality means he can’t help but frame his questions in a way that implies some level of responsibility of science in relation to morality. Dr. Breed believes in “pure research”: scientific work that exists in its own category and needn’t be concerned with anything other than itself.
Themes
Dr. Breed insists that, at this lab, “men are paid to increase knowledge, to work towards no end but that.” The more truth humankind has, he says, “the richer we become.”
