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Metaphors
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Mood
Explanation and Analysis:
The tragicomedy of Cat’s Cradle challenges the reader to laugh and cry at once. Vonnegut deploys a dry, subtly sarcastic humor across dialogue, characters, and narration to poke fun at post-WWII America. The work introduces its audience to all manner of strange people and circumstances. A phallus-shaped tombstone commemorates the burial place of Dr. Hoenikker’s potentially adulterous wife. His son, Newt, is a “midget,” while the other tortures bugs. Meanwhile, other characters like Julian Castle bulldoze dead bodies and the Crosbys chauvinistically swear by American democracy, Hoosiers, and Christianity. The novel’s characters are pathetically ignorant or disturbingly stunted.
This absurdity drives the plot. John’s story is ruled by strange ironies, dark humor, and nonsensical paradoxes. John visits a third-world country that outlaws but also practices Bokononism, a religion created by a prophet who voluntarily persecuted himself. San Lorenzo is ruled by a fat dictator named Papa Monzano, who then singlehandedly destroys the world with ice-nine when he dies. For John, what initially starts a journalism trip leads him into an impromptu marriage, presidential inauguration, and an apocalypse. Vonnegut’s madcap story refuses to make sense.
Despite its comic invitations, the novel structures itself in tragedy. The conclusion of Cat’s Cradle, while implausible, is a devastating one. Papa Monzano unleashes ice-nine in his death, bringing about an earth-shattering apocalypse in which nearly everything and everyone freezes into solids. The novel coaxes out laughter but closes with total destruction.
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