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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Chapter 124. Frank’s Ant Farm
Explanation and Analysis—Insects:
In its criticism of humanity, Cat’s Cradle suggests that people may be no better than their less intelligent counterparts. Insects—which make brief appearances in the novel—form a motif that speaks to humankind’s flaws and a more general, degrading experience of life. Vonnegut critiques through comparison, drawing a line from the realm of natural insects to that of humans.
Insects routinely accompany moments of catastrophic destruction, condemning human folly through their reminders of existence’s pointlessness. When the atomic bomb drops, Frank “was spooning different kinds of bugs into the jar and making them fight.” He finds fun in torturing the stag beetles, red ants, and centipedes, who helplessly compete for supremacy within the confines of a shaking Mason jar. Frank’s bizarre hobby and its victims serve as a microcosm of the senseless world beyond. The struggle among bugs holds just as well for warring states, their buggy brainlessness turned into a damning charge against the realm of political feuds and war crimes.
As though in further mockery of humankind, bugs appear again, though this time after ice-nine’s release into the world. San Lorenzo’s ants have somehow managed to outlast nearly all of the island’s human inhabitants as the world freezes, and a more “grown-up” Frank studies them in order to wile away the time. Though he praises their ability to “co-op-er-ate,” an existential frustration remains. Frank marvels at the way the ants can convert ice-nine into water but cannot come to terms with any answers. In Chapter 124, he bats away John’s explanations in frustration:
Several times I had offered the obvious notion that God had taught them. And I knew from onerous experience that he would neither reject nor accept this theory. He simply got madder and madder, putting the question again and again.
Ants simply are. In pulling off a phenomenon that resists logical or scientific explanations, ants reveal the meaninglessness of Frank’s angry intellectual inquiry. As with cosmic questions about human life, there are no answers. The ants and their simple existence suggest that there may be no deeper explanations for human love, or greed, or horrifying destruction at all. They reveal, through their smallness, an immensely maddening futility that troubles the novel at large.
Related Themes:
