Weapons In Cat's Cradle

In this day in age, it seems as if a new weapon is created everyday. To think that people don't understand what they do or how much they can destroy is almost unbelievable. We create these massive weapons, with deadly intentions but don’t realize what we are doing with them. And just like that, at a click of a button millions of precious lives can be lost. We are so in the moment that we forget that it can’t be taken back either. It’s happened in our history and is still happening in our world today. It occurred in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle where he illustrates a realistic outcome of an extremely detrimental weapon being used on the world.

The place we call earth was changed forever on August 6, 1945 when, for the first time in history, we viewed the power of the atomic bomb. It all started when a US aircraft named the “Enola Gay” flew off from a small island in the Pacific Ocean with a clear path to Japan. The end result was the atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy being dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Those in the aircraft watched as the city, home for 350,000 people, disappeared into thin air. The bomb caused

instant death to 70,000 people. This number increased to an estimated 200,000 as more victims succumbed to nuclear radiation. The Surprising thing about this depressing incident, was that almost, if not everyone who was killed that day were innocent human beings. It just goes to show you how advanced technology can be.The scary thing is that this was almost 70 years ago. Just imagine if this situation were to occur again or with different countries being involved. And more advanced weaponry . the world as we know it could disappear.
According to Whoinvitedit.net “The history of the atomic bomb began with the Manhattan Project. It was tasked to create the bomb beginning in 1939. The scientists who invented the bomb included Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, Rudolf Peierls and many others.Its roots lay in a letter Albert Einstein sent to President Franklin Roosevelt. On August 2, 1939, Einstein sent a letter to the US President stating the Germans were trying to enrich uranium 235. This process would allow them to build an atomic bomb.This led to Roosevelt’s decision to create the Manhattan Project.”
Throughout the Creation of the atomic bomb, a little over $2 billion was spent in total . Oppenheimer was not alone in this project, in fact more than 10 other scientist joined him. The project went to work throughout the span of World War II. “Oppenheimer would go on to say “I am become death”. After the testing, a majority of the scientists voiced their opposition to its usage. They made petitions pleading that it not be used. Their protests were ignored.” (whoinvitedit.net).

After researching the atomic bomb it’s very similar to the creation of Ice-9 in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle.

In the novel the main character John Hears about a substance called Ice-9, created by Felix Hoenikker and that substance is now secretly in the possession of his children. “Ice-nine is an alternative structure of water that is solid at room temperature. When a crystal of ice-nine contacts liquid water, it becomes a seed crystal that makes the molecules of liquid water arrange themselves into the solid form, ice-nine. Felix Hoenikker's reason to create this substance was to aid in the military's plight of wading through mud and swamp areas while fighting. That is, if ice-nine could reduce the wetness of the areas to a solid form, soldiers could easily maneuver across without becoming entrapped or

slowed.”(wikipedia)
Looking back at the evidence from both the novel and the real life atomic bomb incident the similarity becomes obvious . For instance, these two creations were made with the intention to make war easier. Ice-9 was created to freeze the mud to make it easier for troops to walk in it without getting stuck or causing other issues. While the atomic bomb was created to destroy a military base or something important to the enemies, thus making the war easier for them to win. They were both created by intelligent scientist with the intions to help out, not necessarily destroy and kill. this is the reason why the scientist protested in not using the atomic bomb, and thats the same reason why felix probably told no one that he succesful created Ice-9. These scientist didn't want to hurt the lives of others they just simply were doing their jobs.unfortunate Due to certain circumstances both of them did in fact detonate. The Drop in Japan Led to more than 200,000 deaths and thats what it was supposed to do, it wiped out the whole city at ease, but fortunately they were able to rebuild and come back from such a devastating incident. As for Ice-9, the effect it had on earth was much greater. The way Vonnegut illustrated the destruction of the earth was spot on. If all the worlds water were to freeze nothing would be able to live and ultimately cause extinction of every creation on the planet.
Like the atomic Bomb is this were to happen it would happen just like it did in the Novel because illustrated a realistic outcome of an extremely detrimental weapon being used on the world.