Cat's Cradle

Annotated Bibliography:

Caldwell, Tracy M. "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s "Cat's Cradle."" Literary Reference Center. EBSCO, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.                                           Cat’s Cradle has references to religion, history, society, science, and biography while comparing them to reality. Cat's Cradle               focuses on the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. This novel also refers many times to religion and science. It           demonstrates corruptions in religion, and even more so, in science. It showed how science in modern society could in danger             the world. Vonnegut is critical of ethics--or lack thereof--in science. Furthermore, the point of view from which the story is                 told is atheistic. Lastly, Vonnegut associates the Hoenikker family with his own, showing similar patterns, as well as                             demonstrating similarities between his time at war and the many deaths in San Lorenzo. Vonnegut seems to be fond of                       associating his texts with reality, which make his texts extremely unique and intellectual.

 

DeYoung, Andrew. "The Backlist: Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle." The Stake. N.p., 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.

         Cat’s Cradle was nominated for a Hugo Award.  In this novel, Vonnegut mocks both science and religion. Vonnegut opposes                both, and ridicules them throughout the book. He mentions how “science has now a? known sin” after the atomic bomb was                dropped. Vonnegut discusses religion in the form of Bokononism, a fake religion practiced in San Lorenzo. Lastly, Vonnegut                demonstrates how lies distract us from the truth through religion. Cat’s Cradle was written in 1963, which is during the Cold              War period. The atomic bomb still haunted people, and this may have influenced how Vonnegut wrote Cat’s Cradle. If Vonnegut          had written it today, Cat’s Cradle may have just been critical of different things.

 

 

"Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

         Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1922, and died in New York in 2007. Vonnegut had been drafted to the                    army during World War II and was imprisoned by the Germans. After the war he devoted his time to writing, becoming popular          in the 1960’s. One of his greatest novels was Slaughterhouse Five, which was published in 1969. Vonnegut focuses on many              aspects of life, for example, technology and history. Cat’s Cradle is a novel that primarily focuses on technology and science,              while Slaughterhouse Five mainly focuses on history. Vonnegut’s novels are written in his own unique way. This attracted                  people worldwide to read his novels.

 

Linder. "The Futility of Life in Kurt Vonnegut." The Futility of Life in Kurt Vonnegut. University of Illinois, 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.

         Kurt Vonnegut's works consist of humor and are full of unique thoughts. Cat's Cradle is one of those famous works. Cat's                    Cradle is unique because the ending results in a human apocalypse. This novel opposes war and religion. Cat's Cradle                          expresses large ideas written in a mere 187 pages. The speed of the plot affects how the reader perceives the novel. The plots          pace seems to demonstrate how John lives in a world which is out of control with several random events; for example ice-                  nine. Due to the pace of the novel as well as the extreme anti-religious and anti-war ideas, Kurt Vonnegut is seen as a                          pessimist and could have pushed his readers away. However, Vonnegut added dark humor to his novel which kept his readers          interested as well as attracting new readers.

 

 

Price, Liana. "'Understanding Religion Through Cat's Cradle' by Liana Price." 'Understanding Religion Through Cat's Cradle' by Liana            Price. N.p., 11 Mar. 2002. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.

         Cat’s Cradle intrigued many readers worldwide. Cat’s Cradle successfully question nearly all questions of society, particularly            religion. Vonnegut is humanist. He is not sure of God’s existence. Throughout the book he referenced religion as something                ludicrous yet, everyone does it. Bokonon is the creator of Bokononism, a fake religion. In Cat’s Cradle Bokononism was a                      popular religion in San Lorenzo, although all the people knew it was fake. In the novel it was known as Dynamic Tension. It                  means that people were always tense and unhappy when they did not have something to fight for; in Cat’s Cradle they fought              with Bokononism. Bokonon also sees man as the most important, and Vonnegut perceives it as most important as well. In the            end of Cat’s Cradle almost all the humans die because of science and religion. This novel demonstrates the history of human              stupidity. It also shows how humans want to find the meaning of life, but in reality they are giving meaning to life when there is          none to begin with.

 

Wallingford, Eugene. "The Books of Bokonon." The Books of Bokonon. N.p., 16 May 2010. Web. 28 Dec. 2014.                                                     This website quotes every sentence about Bokononism. It organizes the works of Bokonon, and defines all of the new words               that Bokonon wrote.