Vonneguts Cats Cradle :: Vonnegut Cats Cradle

Vonneguts Cats Cradle vs Our Assumptions Regarding War, Progress, and ReligionIf one of Vonneguts purposes for writing is to poison minds with humanity (qtd. by Scholes, per Griffin), then the weapon of plectron in Cats Cradle, is satire. Cats Cradle poisons minds only by revealing the toxins that ar already present in the system. Vonneguts brand of satire serves as a sort of syrup of ipecac on human folly, and if we are to make a better world as he would have it, we should understand how truly virulent human enterprisingness can be.Cats Cradle holds no punches on conventionally held beliefs and opinions. Whether in regard to righteousness or science, business or government, sex or war, all topics are at the mercy of Vonneguts lampooning. The issue of religion is certainly a major target for Vonnegut, and he ingeniously uses irony to satirize religious folly. Cats Cradle introduces the new, non-religious religion of Bokononism, which, harmonize to its own doctrine, is entirely b ased on lies (14). By merely asserting that Bokononism is a more truthful religion because it is based on lies, it becomes as error-ridden as any other religion, including Christianity. An example of this is in Chapter 3, not coincidentally entitled Folly. Here, we are introduced to an Episcopalian woman who claims to understand God and His Ways of working(a) perfectly (13). When John (or Jonah) discovers that this woman cannot read a simple blueprint for a doghouse, he sarcastically suggests that she ask someone to get God to rationalise it to her, and in her anger at his effrontery, the woman fires him. John ends the chapter by stating she was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is Doing (13). All of this is correct according to Bokonon, we are reminded (13), but we mustnt forget that Bokononism is a religion based on lies.