Vonneguts Cats Cradle: Exposing the Folly of Humanity :: Vonnegut Cats Cradle Essays

Vonneguts Cats provenience Exposing the Folly of HumanityIn an interview published in The Vonnegut Statement, Kurt Vonnegut states that hotshot of his reasons for writing is to poison minds with humanity. . . to encourage them to feature a better foundation(107). He uses poison, not in the context of a harmful substance, save as an idea that threatens welfare or happiness. In Cats Cradle, Vonnegut strives to disturb the complacence of his readers by satirizing humanity and its institutions, such as religion, science, and war, to name a few. If Vonnegut is happy in his endeavor, he may disturb some enough to make them see the folly of what humanity has achieved, and attempt to make some meaning(prenominal) and positive changes. In some instances, however, Vonnegut hedges his bets by not relying entirely on the perception of humanity, and succumbs to the temptation of plain speaking.Julian Castle, physician and philanthropist, offers this opinion roughly his fellow man, Man is vile, and man makes nothing price making, knows nothing worth knowing (116). Yet even with this opinion, Castle removes himself from the civilized world, and serves the mankind for whom he expresses so much contempt by building a infirmary in the jungle and tending to the medical needs of the natives. Perhaps in Castle, Vonnegut is attempting to show how one person can make a difference. other example of plain speaking is seen in Horlick Mintons address honoring the cytosine Martyrs to Democracy. He states his feeling that rather than the manly jubilation of patriotic holi twenty-four hour periods, the day would be better spent despising what killed them. . . the lunacy and viciousness of exclusively mankind (170). As Minton himself points out, this is not the type of speech expected of an ambassador. Still, he is compelled to speak what he feels almost as though he has a premonition that his time is short and he may never seduce another chance to make people see what they are d oing to themselves. It should be remembered that Cats Cradle was written in a time when the fear of mans stupidity leading to his annihilation was not so far fetched. After all, the Cuban Missile Crisis was still fresh in everyones minds, the cold war with Soviet Russia was ever present, and bomb shelters were naively considered to be the hope of mans salvation.