Parenting, Meaningless?

Kurt Vonnegut uses his notable satiric voice to take aim at a number of characteristics of human nature in his 1963 novel, Cat's Cradle.  To explain the significance of the book's title I pinpointed a chapter that best describes one of the primary themes Vonnegut develops throughout the story, that human nature leads people to identify achievements with undefinable purposes.  One character in particular Vonnegut characterizes as heavily impacted by the hollowness of such human quests.  Newt Hoenikker, son of Felix Hoenikker who developed the atomic bomb, lived a childhood with ineffective parental attention.  Without a mother, Newt's older sister embraced the maternal role in the house, while Newt's father never provided anything meaningful to the development of his offspring.  Newt reminisced of a single moment in his childhood where his father attempted to play cat's cradle with him.  Newt struggled to find the meaning of such a game and for the rest of his life found himself perplexed at the meaning of any individual's pursuits.  Newt's struggles surrounding the topic climax while on the island of San Lorenzo where he painted a nearly unidentifiable, black picture that he proclaimed a cat's cradle.  To most the picture sparked no ideas, to his sister the painting made for concern, but scientist Julian Castle appeared conscious of where Newt's painting hailed from.  Castle concluded that the picture intended to depict "'the meaninglessness of it all,'" a perplexing idea to the narrator of the story, Jonah (169).  Vonnegut's intentions with Castle's comment translate more directly than one may think.  The author at this moment simply attempts to encourage members of the audience proud of the lessons instilled in their lifetime to pause and reminisce for a moment.  Vonnegut strives to make readers reconsider the few monumental moments of their lives, what truly had meaning, what truly had an impact.  Castle simply provided an extreme outlook claiming nothing has bearing in the lives of people.  Vonnegut continues to develop that extreme perspective of Castle as he declared people never have "'anything really meaningful to say'" (169).  The pessimistic perspective of Castle encouraged Newt to elaborate on his lack of faith on the meaning of anything.  He returned to the game his father once played with him and asked, "'See the cat?  See the cradle?'" (179).  As a result, Vonnegut satirizes the parenting technique Felix Hoenikker adopted with Newt, for like the game had no meaning connected to its title, it also had no meaning and significant effect on Newt's life other than raising unanswerable questions.  As a son very appreciative of the morals and lessons my parents instilled in me I dislike the philosophy of Newt and Castle.  Maybe I am in denial but I believe the parenting techniques my mother and father used in my developing years differentiate me from my peers and had significance in my maturation.  I acknowledge that some games and moments may not have a signifcant effect on the life of a child but that does not mean everything in the world does not have a meaning.  As a result, I disagree with many that think Vonnegut had the intentions of portraying everything in the world as meaningless, instead I believe he encourages those proud of the lessons they have learned to find the significance of all the moments they believe had an impact on the way they live.

Handshakes over Ceremonies

Today universal norms and expectations exist among differing cultures.  Kurt Vonnegut portrays such universals in his novel Cat's Cradle while also mocking those that try too hard to meet them.  One such norm that occurs everywhere: presenting one's guests.  Governments make such an event of this norm when hosting a gathering and in Cat's Cradle the San Lorenzans tried to do just so and present their American guests in a politely eventful fashion.  Of course situations like these can go awry and end in awkwardly amusing moments for the audience.  I found myself awkwardly amused at the San Lorenzans attempt.  To set the stage the Americans arrive by plane to Bolivar, the capital of San Lorenzo.  The American visitors include a businessman and his wife, a writer, relatives of a San Lorenzo resident, and the new ambassador to the United States accompanied by his spouse, in other words, a real star-studded group.  To the President of San Lorenzo the only appropriate way to welcome their guests was to emulate the greeting of The Beatles that just arrived on a flight from London.  Unfortunately, instead of screaming female superfans, the American visitors had to settle for impoverished, unbathed San Lorenzans dressed in loincloths.  When Vonnegut described the appearance of the crowd I thought of a boy band jumping on stage for a performance on MTV's TRL... not.  I chuckled at the awkward situation the visitors had fallen into.  Vonnegut explains the nature of the crowd, "quiet," and adds to the awkwardness when "someone coughed--and that was all" (136).  I felt a sense of the awkwardness and had sympathy for the visitors as empathy reminded me of the feeling.  I could not help but laugh at the scene.  To make things more entertaining for those that only had to read about the moment, President "Papa" of San Lorenzo addresses the wrong "'Mr. Ambassador,'" even after proclaiming San Lorenzo "'the best friend America ever had'" (141).  Vonnegut's utilization of situational irony makes an audience member laugh at the treatment of what just an acquaintance of San Lorenzo may receive.  I may have found the moment so entertaining simply because I have experienced my fair share of awkward moments.  Maybe I am immature for laughing at awkward situations, but such situations teach lessons and change one's thoughts about some universal norms.  A reader should take from this situation: 1.) That one should avoid throwing the "best friend" title around casually. 2.) A proper, firm handshake and personal introductions work as well as a publicized welcoming ceremony complete with a national anthem and 5,000 silent, uninformed audience members.  The author uses satiric techniques to provide such lessons through means of mocking audience members that may have sparked such awkward situations in the past, while he also encourages the understanding of the boundaries of universal norms and expectations.

Add Friend: Jonah

Kurt Vonnegut analyzes an odd way of identifying acquaintances through the practices of Bokonon in his novel Cat's Cradle.  Protagonist Jonah narrates a journey where he uncovered a number of people connected to him, for what reason he had to search for.  These connections to others Jonah identified as a "karass" and explained one can not choose members of his/ her karass but instead the karass does more of the selection according to common characteristics or thoughts of its members (3).  While Jonah may not share my karass, I see him as a possible friend of mine simply because he seems like a relatable person to me.  In an era where people have hundreds of virtual friends via Facebook and other social networking sites I imagine myself becoming more than just another virtual friend with Jonah.  His practice and explanation of Bokonon intrigued me the most and made me think of him as someone I picture myself associating with.  Vonnegut provides a disclaimer during the description of Bokonon that warns the curious that the religion has a composition full of "shameless lies," a characteristic that may attract more people to its practices or deter them from learning more (5).  Jonah provided an example of the former and as a result, characterized him as a strong believer in what he practiced.  Devotion like what Jonah exemplified to the religion of Bokonon despite its founder's disclaimer I perceive as an admirable trait in a candidate for a friend.  Devotion means commitment and only someone committed to a friendship or relationship in general can guarantee a successful relationship.  In addition to the commitment Jonah showed I also respect how he strived to avoid prejudice, another trait harbored through the practice of Bokononism.  A Bokononist's karass has the ability to include any type of person for it "ignores institutional... class boundaries," and consequently discourages the act of prejudice in those that practice the religion (5).  I do not know about others but I typically like to surround myself with people that avoid coming to conclusions about others prematurely.  A Bokononist like Jonah practices the value of equality and does not avoid a person on account of race, class, or ethnicity. Someone willing to expose them self to all and learn the lessons they have to offer results in an extremely well rounded person morally. By acquainting myself with Jonah I would also expose myself to more people and more norms, allowing me to become a better person as well.  Vonnegut's portrayal of Jonah as a committed person, but also one curious enough to meet new people and learn new ideals, appeals to me and I would befriend him in order to diversify my morals and train of thought.