Effective Use of Irony and Satire in Cat's Cradle

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Effective Use of Irony and Satire in Cat's Cradle Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is a satire on the state of world affairs in the 1960's. Vonnegut made a commentary in this book on the tendency of humans to be warlike, belligerent, and shortsighted. The main character of the book, the narrator, is certainly not a protagonist, although the modern reader craves a hero in every story and the narrator in this one is the most likely candidate. Through the narrator's eyes, Vonnegut created a story of black humor ending in the destruction of the earth. Vonnegut's writing style throughout the novel is very flip, light, and sarcastic. The narrator's observations and the events occurring during the novel reflect a dark view of humanity which can only be mocked by humor. At the beginning of the novel the narrator is researching for a book he is writing. The book was to be about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the lives of the people who created the bomb. The narrator travels through the plot of the story, with characters flying in and out, in almost a daze. He is involved in events which are helplessly beyond his control, but which are inevitably leading to a destination at the end. The narrator's lack of control on events brings up one of the main themes of the story which is embodied in a fictitious religion invented by Vonnegut, Bokononism. Bokononism is Vonnegut's way of describing the main theme of the book, which is that no matter what anyone does, no one can possibly change the incredible stupidity of mankind. Bokononism contends that all religions (including Bokononism) are nothing but a pack of hideous lies which should be completely disregarded. Even with this self-defeating underlying... ... middle of paper ... ...s. Vonnegut points out truth in the small diversionsof life like the Boko-maru while pointing out the absurdity and falsehood of the large diversions. The ultimate irony of the book is that no matter what religion you believe in, no matter what acts of goodness you perform, no matter what truth and beauty there is in small idiosyncrasies of life, nothing in the end can save everything from total ruin and pointlessness. The destruction of the world by ice-nine showed Vonnegut's tendency towards this pessimistic view of the world. No matter what any of the characters wished for or did, the world was destroyed all the same by some incredibly stupid and pointless force called fate, or God, who guided the entire human race through its futile and bloody history simply so one man could lie on the top of Mt. McCabe and commit suicide while thumbing his nose at God.

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