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Explanation and Analysis:
Cat’s Cradle is a satirical novel that responds to the social, political, and scientific realities in the wake of WWII. Vonnegut’s work puts a spotlight on the political ideologies, religious fervor, and breakneck technological progress that overrun post-WWII America. Its zany characters and absurdist plot expose humanity’s moral stupidity even in the supposedly enlightened 20th century. Vonnegut uses his story to reflect some of humankind’s most terrifying flaws.
In doing so, Cat’s Cradle situates itself in the postmodern literary tradition. The movement—born in the late 20th century—saw more experimental works that broke down notions of universal truth and challenged longstanding cultural conventions through irony, skepticism, or meta-commentary. In Vonnegut’s novel, people subscribe to a religion of baffling lies, drink acetone, and keep an army of female secretaries underground. Cat’s Cradle joins the likes of Slaughterhouse-Five or Catch-22 in exploring political issues through illogical situations and absurdism.
In its critique of misguided technological progress, the novel makes use of science fictional elements as well. The atomic bomb fills its background—the early half of Cat’s Cradle circles around the legacy of Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the eccentric “father” of the nuclear weapon. It never escapes the late scientist’s grip, either. Ice-nine—yet another one of Dr. Hoenikker’s inventions—threatens to end the world by turning any substance it touches, Midas-like, into solid. It preoccupies John’s narration and essentially destroys the world by the novel’s end. By borrowing premises of science fiction, Vonnegut imagines apocalypse as the only fitting outcome for a world that has surrendered its morals to science.
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