Cat’s Cradle

Cat’s Cradle

by

Kurt Vonnegut

Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson Character Analysis

Bokonon is a mysterious figure of great influence. John learns that everyone on San Lorenzo practices Bokonon’s invented religion—Bokononism—despite it being officially outlawed. It is a religion founded on foma: lies that bring comfort. Bokonon was born Lionel Boyd Johnson, and in his early life travelled widely, at one time studying at the London School of Economics. Eventually, he landed on San Lorenzo with a U.S. army deserter, Edward McCabe. There, the two men wanted to start a utopia, but quickly realized that improving the lot of the people was beyond their capabilities. Bokonon thus invented his religion to bring comfort, meaning and excitement to the lives of the islanders, asking McCabe to outlaw it in order to create a sense of purposeful danger. Bokonon was Mona and Philip Castle’s tutor when they were children. The book is littered with quotes from Bokonon’s own religious text, which usually expresses the absurdity and hypocrisy of humankind. Bokonon only makes a real appearance at the novel’s close, when John finds him by the roadside trying to come up with an ending to his religious text. This ending says that, if he had his time again, he would write a “history of human stupidity.”

Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson Quotes in Cat’s Cradle

The Cat’s Cradle quotes below are all either spoken by Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson or refer to Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Science and Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

When I was a much younger man, I began to collect material for a book to be called The Day the World Ended.

The book was to be factual.

The book was to be an account of what important Americans had done on the day when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

It was to be a Christian book. I was a Christian then.

I am a Bokononist now.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson, Dr. Felix Hoenikker
Page Number: 1-2
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

I do not intend that this book be a tract on behalf of Bokononism. I should like to offer a Bokononist warning about it, however. The first sentence in The Books of Bokonon is this:

“All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.”

My Bokononist warning is this:

Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either.

So be it.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 5-6
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 42 Quotes

“Whenever I meet a young Hoosier, I tell them, ‘You call me Mom.’”

“Uh huh.”

“Let me hear you say it,” she urged.

“Mom?”

She smiled and let go of my arm. Some piece of clockwork had completed its cycle. My calling Hazel “Mom” had shut it off, and now Hazel was rewinding it for the next Hoosier to come along.

Hazel’s obsession with Hoosiers around the world was a textbook example of a false karass, of a seeming team that was meaningless in terms of the ways God gets things done, a textbook example of what Bokonon calls a granfalloon.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Hazel Crosby (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 58 Quotes

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

Related Characters: Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 72 Quotes

What I had seen, of course, was the Bokononist ritual of boko-maru, or the mingling of awarenesses.

We Bokononists believe that it is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving the person, provided the feet of both persons are clean and nicely tended.

The basis for the foot ceremony is this “Calypso”:

We will touch our feet, yes,
Yes, for all we’re worth,
And we will love each other, yes,
Yes, like we love our Mother Earth.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 158
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 81 Quotes

Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?”
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

Related Characters: Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 127 Quotes

If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.

Related Characters: Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker), John
Related Symbols: Ice-Nine
Page Number: 287
Explanation and Analysis:
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Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson Quotes in Cat’s Cradle

The Cat’s Cradle quotes below are all either spoken by Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson or refer to Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Science and Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

When I was a much younger man, I began to collect material for a book to be called The Day the World Ended.

The book was to be factual.

The book was to be an account of what important Americans had done on the day when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

It was to be a Christian book. I was a Christian then.

I am a Bokononist now.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson, Dr. Felix Hoenikker
Page Number: 1-2
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

I do not intend that this book be a tract on behalf of Bokononism. I should like to offer a Bokononist warning about it, however. The first sentence in The Books of Bokonon is this:

“All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.”

My Bokononist warning is this:

Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either.

So be it.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 5-6
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 42 Quotes

“Whenever I meet a young Hoosier, I tell them, ‘You call me Mom.’”

“Uh huh.”

“Let me hear you say it,” she urged.

“Mom?”

She smiled and let go of my arm. Some piece of clockwork had completed its cycle. My calling Hazel “Mom” had shut it off, and now Hazel was rewinding it for the next Hoosier to come along.

Hazel’s obsession with Hoosiers around the world was a textbook example of a false karass, of a seeming team that was meaningless in terms of the ways God gets things done, a textbook example of what Bokonon calls a granfalloon.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Hazel Crosby (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 58 Quotes

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

Related Characters: Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 72 Quotes

What I had seen, of course, was the Bokononist ritual of boko-maru, or the mingling of awarenesses.

We Bokononists believe that it is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving the person, provided the feet of both persons are clean and nicely tended.

The basis for the foot ceremony is this “Calypso”:

We will touch our feet, yes,
Yes, for all we’re worth,
And we will love each other, yes,
Yes, like we love our Mother Earth.

Related Characters: John (speaker), Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 158
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 81 Quotes

Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?”
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

Related Characters: Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker)
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 127 Quotes

If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.

Related Characters: Bokonon / Lionel Boyd Johnson (speaker), John
Related Symbols: Ice-Nine
Page Number: 287
Explanation and Analysis: