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Chapter 22
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
From the vantage point of the present day, John informs the reader that Dr. Breed was wrong: there is such thing as ice-nine. Dr. Hoenikker had made a small chip of it just before he died. He told Frank, Angela, and Newt about it on the Christmas Eve that he died—and they divided that chip between themselves.
John’s interventions from the present-day contribute to the sense of the novel as a post-apocalyptic text. The link between ice-nine and Christmas, as with the carol in the previous chapter, ties both science and religion together in the idea that neither can save humanity from itself. The division of ice-nine between the children also represents the division—and disappearance—of personal responsibility.
Themes
