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Chapter 8
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
A year after his exchange of letters with Newt, John heads to Ilium in New York to see where Dr. Hoenikker did most of his work. He makes an appointment with Dr. Asa Breed, who was Dr. Hoenikker’s supervisor. On the phone, Dr. Breed explains he was a supervisor in name only: Dr. Hoenikker “was a force of nature no mortal could possibly control.”
Dr. Breed echoes the line that science is separate from morality. Here, he does so by likening Dr. Hoenikker’s work to the natural world—essentially something that is out of the control of humankind. This, of course, is a farcical position given that Dr. Hoenikker is very much a human.
Themes
