Cat's Cradle
...s religion to interpret and “dissect.” The critical article also talks about how each of the Hoenikker children give up their piece of Ice Nine for love in one form or another. For example, Newt gives his piece to the Russian midget for love (which ultimately falls apart); Angela trades her piece in for the love of a handsome man, since she is so hideous; Frank trades his piece of the ice in for a position of power in the small island of San Lorenzo. I personally agree with everything that this critic had to say about the book because once one looks deeper than the words, one could see the true meanings of the book, and the underlying themes of it. Vonnegut’s style is truly unique in that all of the chapters in the book have specific, and descriptive titles such as, “A Nice Midget, Mom, No Pain, and Draft Dodgers.” The structure of his chapters is the same way, Vonnegut makes them shot and sweet, getting straight to the point of the chapter, and when he is done with that point, he move on to the next chapter. Each one of these chapters is no more than two to three pages apiece. Even some of the author’s life experiences are expressed in this book. For example, the dead mother of the Hoenikker children is the same as it was for Vonnegut who’s mother died when he was twenty-two. Even the Family’s structure was the same as Vonnegut’s, having a mother, father, and three children (and older son, middle daughter, and younger son). His sentence structure is varied, one moment he we be in the middle of a huge statement, and then midway through the explanation, he cuts off and talks about how the character would have expressed his feelings had he been a different religion at the time. Vonnegut uses simplistic diction throughout the book with a few exeptions, and these exceptions are merely the made up words of the Bokononist religion the main character talks about. There are actually several apparent themes in this novel, some of which have been brought up earlier in the essay. One of these themes is human greed, and desire to advance technologically. As we advance, we are getting closer to the end. The more powerful weapons we create, the more likely they will become our own demise. Vonnegut’s book expresses this through his explanation of the atom bomb and ice nine. Each of them are weapons, and though the atom bomb may have come first, and can destroy a large area at once, the ice nine can destroy the world with it’s power to simply freeze any body of water it touches. Though it is tied to the last one, another theme is the danger of technological advancement, because through these advances we may very well become out ...