In Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, the author uses satire to target religious themes. Bokononism, Vonnegut's contrived religion, is built on foma, or harmless untruths. Bokononists believe that good societies can only be built by keeping a high tension between good and evil at all times, and that there is no such thing as absolute evil (Schatt 64). They have created their own language with words such as karass, a group of people organized by God to do his work for him (Vonnegut 2), and granfalloon, a false karass (91). The Books of Bokonon are the religious texts of Bokononism. They were originally created by two men, Lionel B. Johnson and Earl McCabe. The two men wash up on the shore of San Lorenzo, a small, corrupt, poverty-stricken island. The people, desperate for money and happiness, let the two men rule their island. However, as McCabe becomes a tyrant, the townspeople start to consider rebellion. In order to quell the people's anger, Johnson creates the religion of Bokononism and writes The Books of Bokonon. Vonnegut uses The Books of Bokonon to satirize all other holy scriptures. He also uses a Bokononist ritual, boko-maru, to mock other spiritual rituals and ceremonies. Finally, Vonnegut uses the apocalyptic ending of Cat's Cradle to scoff at many religions' beliefs in what will happen when the world ends.
"All the things I am about to tell you are shameless lies." So begins the Books of Bokonon. Bokononism is an original religion that is introduced in this book, Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The book shows the importance of religion, even if that religion is "shameless lies". It also displays how people convince themselves that things are better then they really are. I read this book because of a promise I made to my father. I'm glad I made that promise; I just read a delightfully funny and deep tale about the end of the world.
I think one thing that Vonnegut is trying to show us is that man too easily accepts things as valid without questioning. Refering to this, Newt, another character, says, "No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's…No damn cat, and no damn cradle" (114).
Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional novel “Cat’s Cradle”, indirectly explores issues that parallels into topics such as religion, scientific/technological advancements, political power and much more. Vonnegut’s novel is narrated by a character named Jonah (John). He, Jonah, sets out to write an anthropological book based off of what key people were doing on the day that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Throughout Vonnegut’s novel it can clearly represents how a writer can become a very destructive person to society. As for this novel, it shows through the uses of parallels that a writer can become a very destructive person to society, these parallels are reflects to real world issues throughout his novel to show this claim, that a writer too can be a destructive person to society.
Throughout this essay I will demonstrate how religion has played a role in the lives of humans as well as explicate the reasoning behind the true nature of the creation of religion by a psychopath.
Smith, Huston. World’s Religions: A Guide to our Wisdom Traditions. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994.
Oxtoby Willard G., and Segal Alan F. A Concise Introduction to World Religions 2nd ed. Don
Boethius's idea of a simultaneous God that could remain omnipresent without propagating or condoning evil became a cornerstone in Christian theology during the medieval ages. The Consolation soothes the reader not because it provides a theological proof, but because it reveals that injustice will never be rewarded by the truly virtuous God. In the Consolation of Philosophy, reason represented by Lady Philosophy comforts the imprisoned Boethius that in a world created by an eternal, emanating God, bad can never overcome virtue and goodness.
Oxtopy, W., & Segal, A. (2007). A concise introduction to world religions. (1st ed., p. 258). New York: Oxford University press.
Ryrie, Charles C. Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth. Chicago: Moody, 1996, 1991. Print.
Eastman, Roger. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. Third Edition. Oxford University Press. N.Y. 1999
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Kurt Vonnegut uses a combination of dark humor and irony in Slaughterhouse-Five. As a result, the novel enables the reader to realize the horrors of war while simultaneously laughing at some of the absurd situations it can generate. Mostly, Vonnegut wants the reader to recognize the fact that one has to accept things as they happen because no one can change the inevitable.
One of the most prevalent themes in Vonnegut’s works is religion. In the early pages of Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut submits his contention that "a useful religion can be founded on lies (Vonnegut, Cats Cradle 16)," meaning that, fundamentally, religion is about people, not about faith or God. Reminiscent of Karl Marx’s description of religion as the "opiate of the masses," he describes all religions as mere collections of "harmless untruths" that help people cope with their lives. The Book of Bokonon in Cat's Cradle represents this portrait of religion at both its dreariest and its most uplifting, Bokononism is contradictory, paradoxical, and founded on lies; its followers are aware of this...
Oxtoby, Willard G., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Oxford, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Religion is an organized collection of beliefs and cultural systems that entail the worship of a supernatural and metaphysical being. “Religion just like other belief systems, when held onto so much, can stop one from making significant progress in life”. Together with religion come traditions that provide the people with ways to tackle life’s complexities. A subscription to the school of thought of great scholars