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Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Chapter 22. Member of the Yellow Press
Explanation and Analysis—Frozen Oceans:
During his visit to the research laboratory in Chapter 22, John foreshadows ice-nine’s destructive potential. His conversation with Dr. Breed trails off into a speculative realm, much to the scientist’s chagrin. In the moment, John’s wildly improbable suggestions have a feel of the comic and ridiculous—especially since Dr. Breed insists that ice-nine does not even exist:
‘I keep thinking about that swamp...’
‘You can stop thinking about it! I’ve made the only point I wanted to make with the swamp.'
‘If the streams flowing through the swamp froze as ice-nine, what about the rivers and lakes the streams fed?’
‘They’d freeze. But there is no such thing as ice-nine.’
‘And the oceans the frozen rivers fed?’
‘They’d freeze, of course,’ he snapped. ‘I suppose you're going to rush to market with a sensational story about ice-nine now. I tell you again, it does not exist!’
But John’s wild babbling completes its pivot from the whimsical to the prophetic the moment when Papa Monzano becomes the “first man in history to die of ice-nine.” The dictator kills himself by opening the capsule, which freezes Dr. von Koenigswald. The collapsed castle, frozen seas, and tornadoes are simply a matter of time. What seems like ludicrous science fiction actually breaks into the novel’s reality.
John’s predictions reinforce some of the novel’s facetiousness. Cat’s Cradle reads partly as a chronicle of improbable fulfillments—John becomes president of a country on his first visit, marries the very woman he falls in love with, and correctly predicts the end of the world. The sheer odds lend themselves to a defense of the Bokononist God’s vin-dit. But this vision that comes to pass also strengthens Vonnegut’s criticism of science. In extrapolating ice-nine’s consequences, John identifies what the scientific establishment overlooks in its hubris. His foresight—which happens to be Dr. Breed’s oversight—shows how destructive consequences can arise from seemingly innocuous laboratory experiments. Human creations can go awry, even if they aren't meant to destroy. The clueless journalist manages to outthink the scientist, spotting the dangers in technology’s leap from theory to practice.
Related Themes:
Chapter 49. A Fish Pitched Up by an Angry Sea
Explanation and Analysis—The Golden Boat:
The events along John’s journey have a way of turning fiction into foreshadowing. That is the case with Bokonon’s prophecy at least, of which John learns from Philip Castle’s book in Chapter 49:
‘There is a legend, made up by Bokonon,’ Philip Castle wrote in his book, ‘that the golden boat will sail again when the end of the world is near.’
Eerily, this “legend” takes on a ring of truth when the Day of the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy goes awry. As Papa Monzano opens his capsule of ice-nine, the castle’s great tower crumbles and sends the Mintons tumbling. Amid the tumult of paving stones and xylophones, the “golden bow” of the “mightily reluctant” vessel—Papa Monzano’s bed—sets out to sea. As prophesied, Bokonon’s ship sails again and the world ends in a marble-like state.
The improbable fulfillment of this vision challenges the distinction between reality and imagination. Bokonon has effectively subjected the world to his fantasies. Life imitates fiction perfectly, muddling the reader’s understanding of both. In a novel whose plot tests the limits of cause and effect, this moment questions whether reality is merely a bundle of zany fantasies or a product of comprehensible forces. Bokonon’s golden boat sails because of ice-nine, a feat of terrible science. But the whole sequence of events could not have been predicted by reason alone. Vonnegut blurs the line between religious vision and scientific rationalism, both of which have steered San Lorenzo towards its tragic downfall.
Related Themes:
