Science and Morality Theme Analysis

Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle is a darkly comic book with serious intent. John, the novel’s narrator, sets out to write a book about the day the atomic bomb was dropped, before becoming embroiled in the story of the bomb’s ingenious creator, Dr. Felix Hoenikker. From the outset, Vonnegut makes it clear that this is a book that goes deep into the question of science’s relationship with morality, illustrating how one is entwined with the other. Ultimately, the novel makes the point that “progress” in science does not equate to progress in morality—and that, in fact, scientific developments have the capacity to wreak destruction on the very civilization that they are meant to help.

Vonnegut makes the case that there is nothing innately beneficial about scientific and technological advancements—they are morally neutral, with their implications for civilization only put into motion by those who control them. In other words, it’s the people who wield technology that decide what that technology’s outcome is for the world. Over the course of the novel, Vonnegut builds a picture of the deceased Dr. Hoenikker to emphasize that the idea that science can sit outside of morality is nothing less than a dangerous myth. There’s little doubt that Dr. Hoenikker was a brilliant scientific mind. He invented the atom bomb and, as is later revealed to be even more destructive, the substance of ice-nine. Dr. Hoenikker thus represents humankind’s capacity for technological and scientific innovation, which accelerated to an incredible pace during the 20th century. From what little information John can glean about Dr. Hoenikker’s ethics, however, it is clear that the great innovator was not an empathetic man (though not an evil one either), and did not see it as his concern how his innovations were put to use; his supervisor describes his work as “pure research.” Dr. Hoenikker thus also embodies what Vonnegut sees as the naïve idea that science is amoral. 

Though Dr. Hoenikker had no express evil intent—he was wrapped up in his so-called “pure research” when he formed the atomic bomb—his invention was then put into human hands, meaning it could no longer be amoral, because humans are not amoral. Of course, at this point the reader already knows the sheer destruction that the atom bomb brought to bear upon humanity. Because of the vast and devastating implications of Dr. Hoenikker’s research, Vonnegut implies that there actually is no such thing as “pure research”; science cannot be divorced from morality because its innovations have such potentially far-reaching effects—both good and bad—over the entirety of life on the planet, and depend greatly on the people wielding that technology. One of the key strands to Vonnegut’s argument, then, is that scientific innovation cannot be divorced from moral responsibility. Dr. Hoenikker represents a kind of pure science—which Vonnegut demonstrates is a deeply flawed idea.

Though Vonnegut’s writing is sometimes characterized as “speculative fiction”—writing that uses the state of the world today to inform a depiction of its possible future—Cat’s Cradle uses the distinctly un-speculative atomic bomb as its starting point. Vonnegut doesn’t need to demonstrate humankind’s talent for self-destruction, because the story starts from historical fact. The argument, then, becomes more about the entwined relationship between scientific ingenuity and the way humankind harnesses this to inflict damage upon itself. The atomic bomb was based on a miraculous and deep understanding of nothing less than the make-up of reality—and yet this development caused immeasurable pain to so many in the deployment of the bomb (whether justified or not).

Vonnegut expands on this reality by introducing Dr. Hoenikker’s next invention: ice-nine. This substance is described as a “seed crystal” that makes a molecule of liquid water freeze in solid form without the need for a low temperature; this molecule then teaches the neighboring molecule to change form in the same way. this was originally conceived by Dr. Hoenikker (though, amazingly, Vonnegut was given the idea by a real-life Nobel scientist) when he was asked to find a way to aid American soldiers who find themselves disadvantaged by muddy terrain. Vonnegut bases this fictional invention on water because water is so essential to human life—it is, as far as is known, one of the key building blocks of all life. Creating a substance that exerts control over water in such a way is, on a technical level, an incredible scientific advancement.

But in the novel’s conclusion, the true power of ­ice-nine is released. John learns that each of the Hoenikker children kept a small amount ice-nine and used it for personal gain; most gravely, Frank Hoenikker obtained a high-up government position on San Lorenzo by giving the technology to its dictator, “Papa” Monzano. After Monzano commits suicide by ingesting ice-nine, a military aircraft engaging in a ceremonial flyover crashes into the cliffs, destabilizing “Papa’s” castle and sending his body into the see: his contact with the water freezes the world’s oceans and fills the sky with tornadoes. Ostensibly, this spells the end of humankind, via a series of errors, selfish actions, and misfortunes—without water, life cannot survive. The novel’s bleak ending, which takes place in this aftermath is all the more haunting give the novel’s factual starting-point with the atomic bomb. Vonnegut therefore makes a powerful, cautionary argument through his darkly comic novel: that scientific ingenuity doesn’t necessarily mean moral progress, and that the responsibility for the latter lies solely with how humankind decides to apply those scientific and technological advancements.