Understanding Religion Through Cat's Cradle
Liana Price
The following is issued as a warning from the author
Kurt Vonnegut to the reader: "Any one unable to understand
how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not
understand this book either"(14). The latter quote is
typical of Vonnegut in his usage of creating a personal
narrative.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born in Indianapolis, like many
of his characters, in 1922. His life from that point on
closely resembles the lives of the people in his satirical
novel Cat's Cradle. Vonnegut's mother committed suicide when
he was twenty two years old and in many of his novels the
character of the mother is dead. Vonnegut's "lifelong
pessimism clearly has its roots in his parents' despairing
response to the depression" (Allen 2). He was captured in
WWII and was present in Dresden, Germany when it was bombed
and set fire to, killing 135,000 citizens. This later became
the basis for Vonnegut's greatest success
Slaughterhouse-Five.
Cat's Cradle was published in 1963, and though it
wasn't as big a success as Slaughterhouse, it became widely
known as contributing to the "counter-culture" since it does
in fact question and counter almost every part of our
society's culture (Reed). One of the largest points of our
culture brought into question in Cat's Cradle is religion.
Vonnegut himself is a Humanist, meaning that he isn't sure
of the existence of a God, but values life above all else.
In his last novel Timequake, Vonnegut explains that he
understands that humans need religion as something to turn
to for comfort and support (Timequake 63).
Cat's Cradle tells a fictional account of how the
world met its end. There are actually three different
writers at work in the story. First and foremost is the
author Kurt Vonnegut. The narrator he creates in his novel
is called John, or Jonah as he tells the reader to refer to
him (Vonnegut 1), and he frequently recites passages from
The Books of Bokonon written by a fictional religious guru
Bokonon (Reed 125). All three hold true to a passage from
another of Vonnegut's books "lies told for the sake of
artistic effect...can be.. the most beguiling forms of
truth"(Vonnegut Editor's Note) Though Jonah is most closely
linked to representing Vonnegut, Bokonon is the most
interesting character created on the Island of San Lorenzo
where most of the book takes place. By having this central
yet elusive character invent a religion openly based on
lies, Vonnegut demonstrates society's blind dependency on
religion:
I wanted all things
To seem to make some sense,
So we all could be happy, yes,
Instead of tense.
And I made up lies
So that they all fit nice,
And I made this sad world
A par-a-dise (Vonnegut 90)
The latter quote describing why Bokonon, christened Lionel
Boyd Johnson on the Island of Tobago in 1891 (Vonnegut 74),
invented Bokononism is said to be found in Bokonon's
"Calypsos", or short poems/songs. When Bokonon was still
known as Lionel, before he reached the shores of San
Lorenzo, he was a sailor whose ships crashed 6 different
times. It was during these unexplainable incidents that
Lionel met up with "brilliant, self-educated, idealistic
Marine deserter" Earl McCabe who had just stolen his
company's money (Vonnegut 77). The two set off for Miami but
wrecked on the shores of San Lorenzo. This is when Lionel
became Bokonon, not through some mystic vision, but because
it was how the natives pronounced Johnson. The tiny island
of San Lorenzo and its inhabitants effectively become for
Vonnegut a symbol for society when it is at its lowest and
most desperate. It is a densely populated area with "450
inhabitants for each uninhabitable square mile"(94). The
people are described as thin, starving, with missing teeth
and bowed or swollen legs. The island itself is worthless
and when Bokonon and McCabe arrived and announced they were
taking control of the island, those that had been trying to
rule quietly stepped down. McCabe and Bokonon split up the
duties to make the island a "par-a-dise" with McCabe taking
control of the government and Bokonon, "cynically and
playfully", inventing the new national religion(118). Both
Bokonon and McCabe soon came to the realization that
religion was the only real way they were going to make the
people happy since the island would always be worthless.
Vonnegut now shows the reader his true insights into
why society craves religion so vehemently: "Truth was the
enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so
Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with
better and better lies" (118). In essence, Vonnegut is
saying that religion is nothing more than foma, or harmless
untruths (copyright page), told to cover up the horrible,
unexplainable truths out there. Bokononism becomes like
a sensational play to the people of San Lorenzo in which
they are all actors in a play they understand. Bokonon told
McCabe to outlaw his religion in order to "give the
religious life of the people more zest" (118). It is easy to
see how fake the religion becomes with the cruel tyrant
McCabe in the city and the gentle holy man Bokonon in the
jungle (119), but it is the only thing that gives the people
any source of joy. Bokonon has a theory of "Dynamic Tension"
that talks of the balance between good and evil and that
good societies can only survive by keeping the tensions
between these two things high at all times. He and McCabe
take on these roles:
"Papa" Monzano, he's so very bad,
But without bad "Papa" I would be so sad;
Because without "Papa's" badness,
Tell me, if you would,
How could wicked old Bokonon
Ever, ever look good (74)?
This theory of Dynamic Tension can be seen throughout the
world today. People, it seems, can not be happy unless they
have something to fight for and in most cases, like the one
in Cat's Cradle, it is their religion. Bokononists realize
that "there is no decipherable meaning in the workings of
the world, but we can play as if there were some" (Reed
126). The religion pokes fun at the Bible for believing it
has all the right answers by paraphrasing a quote from Jesus
that states, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which
are Caesar's", The Bokononist version goes "Pay no attention
to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's
really going on" (Vonnegut 73). This apparent contradiction
between Bokononist thought and Christian, cynically and
humorously points out the lack of true meaning and relevance
in religion.
The most important thing to Bokononists is man. In the
Books of Bokonon, when Bokonon tells the story of how man
was created, he has man ask God what the meaning of "all
this" is. God replies that he doesn't see why everything
must have a meaning and if man does, he leaves man to find
one(177). This is how Vonnegut, as well as Bokonon, sees
religion, a hopeless search for truths that don't exist.
Through Vonnegut's other characters there arises more
insight into how different people view religion and society.
Julian Castle refers to Jesus as "oh, Him" and that people
only talk about Jesus and other religious icons because they
need "to keep their voice boxes in working order in case
there's ever anything really meaningful to say" (116).
Julian here demontratates his Bokononist view of life by
accepting the fact that though he talks of Jesus and
religion, he knows it means nothing. Jonah is surprised to
find out that all the people on the island are Bokononists
and that he is one also (118). This refers back to the
reason he wants to be called Jonah. It is both a parody of
Melville's Moby Dick and an allusion to the Bible story of
Jonah. "It is characteristic that Vonnegut's speaker should
be a Jonah, who..gets swallowed by the whale, rather than
a whale- hunting Ishmael"(Reed 124). The whale, of course,
symbolizes Bokononism and religion in general. Jonah is the
only character with running inner dialogue in which we see
his struggle with power once he is offered the rule of San
Lorenzo. He quickly gets rid of his allusions to make
Bokononism a welcome religion, recognizing the Dynamic
Tension that must be present in society. He also found it
impossible not to "lean on God" to write his speech (152).
Jonah is also confronted with the cold, but lovely,
embodiment of Bokononism, Mona Aamons Monzano. She grows up
as the sexual icon for her people and hating it, runs away
to study under Bokonon. The religion of harmless untruths
helps her cope by taking away her emotion. The only time an
outburst is elicited from her is when Jonah tells her to
love only him. This, under Bokononist thought, is considered
utterly wrong and when Mona tells this to Jonah she
challengingly asks what his religion says about this. Again,
it is pointed out that religions who boast of loving only
one person don't make much sense and seem barbaric to
Bokononists:
A lover's a liar,
To himself he lies.
The truthful are loveless,
Like oysters their eyes! ( 156)
The title of Kurt Vonnegut's novel comes from Newton
Hoenikker's, or Newt's, speech to Jonah about the deceptions
society teaches its children. Newt tells Jonah that "for
maybe a hundred thousand years or more, grown- ups have been
waving tangles of string in their children's faces...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).
This is a proper analogy for all aspects of society,
especially religion. Society makes something up and pretends
it's something it's not. For instance, religion says it has
all the answers, but when it is examined closer, nothing is
really there. This just, once again, reiterates the point
that religion is only a thin facade created by man to answer
otherwise unanswerable questions, but it is all lies.
Newt's father and brother both serve the purpose of in
the novel showing the scientific view of religion. Newt's
father Felix was the creator of the atom bomb and was
described as being "so innocent he was practically a Jesus"
but, as one man asked, "how the hell innocent is a man who
helps make a thing like an atomic bomb?"(Vonnegut 53). This
comparison to Jesus is striking. It takes a man who caused
hundreds of thousands of deaths by creating something, and
compares him to Jesus. Once the comparison is made it is
surprisingly relevant in that Jesus created a religion that
would, over time, cause hundreds of thousands of deaths
also. Religion was and is the topic of many wars around the
world, Christianity being one of those conflicting
religions. At one point he asks why he should "bother with
made-up games" such as religion "when there are so many real
ones going on"(Vonnegut 17). He was a realist in every sense
and wasn't one to go searching for lies. Felix questioned
everything and it is easy to assume he believed in nothing.
He didn't believe in sin (Vonnegut 21), and he once
challenged a woman to tell him one thing that was absolutely
true, knowing she could not answer satisfactorily. He
responded to her reply of "God is love" by asking "What is
God? What is love?" (44).
The woman, Miss Faust, is a typical devout in that she
refuses to question her faith. Her name is conspicuous
because of its correlation with the Faust legends. In these
legends a person sells his soul to the devil for something
he wants, and later regrets his decision. Since Miss Faust
represents all those devout people who will not accept
anything outside their narrow view of religion, the Faust
legend applies to all these people. They sell their minds
and their ability to think for themselves to a religion to
have an easy way to comfort themselves which will eventually
lead to their disappointment.
The capitalists are unfavorably represented by the
often unwittingly humorous and ignorant Crosby's. H. Lowe
Crosby and his wife Hazel are both from Chicago. Crosby is
all in favor of business and is more than willing to
sacrifice independence and originality in order to turn
a profit. He is leaving Chicago because of it's growth in
human relations and going to San Lorenzo because, "the
people down there are poor enough and scared enough and
ignorant enough to have some common sense"(Vonnegut 66).
Vonnegut describes him as confronting the world with
"a certain barn-yard clownishness" but he also points out
that he wasn't a fool and that many things he said about
"undisciplined mankind were not only funny but true" (68).
Hazel is a bit more blatantly muddled than her husband and
is a firm believer in granfalloons. A granfalloon, according
to Bokonon, is a seeming team of individuals that is
meaningless in terms of the ways God gets things done:"If
you wish to study a granfalloon, Just remove the skin of
a toy balloon." (67-68) As they arrived at San Lorenzo and
were waiting on a platform to meet the ruler, "Papa"
Monzano, Hazel looked out at the silent and unhappy people
and told that she was "sure glad it's a Christian country"
or she'd be a little scared (96). She automatically falls
back on her religion for comfort in a scary and new
situation never realizing that this nation is not
a Christian one, but a poor one. The irony that the people
turn out to be Bokonists shows that religion only comforts
us in our own mind, like Hazel's, but doesn't actually have
any real effects on those around us.
The only hospital in San Lorenzo is the House of Hope
and Mercy run by Julian Castle, an American millionaire who
was repenting for his former life of indulgence by
unselfishly devoting his life to the miserable people of the
jungle island. His son Philip Castle was tutored by Bokonon.
He gave his reason for not following his father's footsteps
with a story of how one year bubonic plague came to San
Lorenzo and in bed after bed there were dead bodies and his
father started to giggle and make his flashlight dance
around the dead people stacked outside and turned to Philip
to say, "Son, someday this will all be yours"(112). The
other doctor at the hospital was also doing penance. He was
a camp doctor at Auschwitz for six years. He saves people
night and day and, as Julian tells Jonah, "If he keeps going
at his present rate...the number of people he's saved will
equal the number of people he let die..in 3010"(127). Julian
calls himself a Bokononist because he agrees with Bokonon
that all religions are lies. He is also a fitting Bokononist
because he recognizes the need for religion to make some one
feel better whether it is scientific and truthful or not
(148).
In Cat's Cradle, the end of the world comes about when
all the oceans, streams, lakes, and other bodies of water
freeze because of an invention of Felix Hoenniker's that
teaches water to crystallize as hard as a desk with
a melting point of one hundred and thirty degrees
Fahrenheit. As soon as it touches human skin or gets inside
the body, all blood turns to ice and the person dies. The
reactions of the various people on San Lorenzo give insight
into their character. The Crosby's run away from the
tornadoes that suddenly form because of the sudden lack of
moisture yelling "American! American!"(175), true to their
granfalloonery and belief that what they classify themselves
as in their heads will have any effect on the happenings
around them. The people of San Lorenzo, the ones who
survived until the tornadoes left the surface, found Bokonon
and captured him. They carried him to the top of the highest
mountain on the island to tell them what God was doing and
how they should react. Bokonon tells them that "God was
surely trying to kill them...and that they should have the
good manners to die"(182). At that, they all touched the ice
to their mouths and died. He gave them a simple way out, and
since they had lived their lives by somebody else's lies for
the reason that it made things simple, they died that way
also. Bokonon didn't take his own advice however, he knew it
was worthless (182).
Throughout the novel Jonah is searching for the reason
for his existence and what all these strange coincidences in
his life are leading up to. John tells Newt of his dream of
climbing the mountain on San Lorenzo to put up a symbol, but
he doesn't know what the symbol should be. At the end of the
novel Jonah finds Bokonon sitting by the side of the road
writing the last page of the Books of Bokonon:
If I were a younger man, I would write a history
of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of
Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history
for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of
the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and
I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back,
grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know
Who. (191)
It can be assumed that Cat's Cradle is the history of "human
stupidity" Bokonon spoke of, and this would also "satisfy
Jonah's original intention of writing The Day the World
Ended" (Reed 124) like he originally said he would. It is
also conclusive to find that the symbol Jonah dreamed of
carrying was Bokonon.
Through Vonnegut's unique characters and his cynical
view of society, the pivotal role religion plays in everyday
life is brought into new perspective and its very validity
is questioned. Bokononism becomes the one true religion of
all the people in Vonnegut's fictional world because it
recognizes that it, the religion, is trash and its only
purpose is to give meaning to a world where no meaning
exists. The only people who take it seriously are the
miserable villagers of San Lorenzo who end up killing
themselves because they refuse to question their religion
though it admits to being made of lies. Newt describes
religion best:
Little Newt snorted. 'Religion!'
'See the cat?' asked Newt. 'See the cradle?'(124)
Bibliography:
Allen, William Rodney. Understanding Kurt Vonnegut
(Understanding Contemporary American Literature). Columbia,
SC: University of SouthCarolina Press, 1991.
Broer, Lawrence R., editor. Sanity Plea: Schizophrenia in
the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut (revised edition). Tuscaloosa,
AL: University of Alabama Press, 1994
Huber, Chris. The Vonnegut Web. 14 Feb. 2002. 25 Feb. 2002
http://www.duke.edu/~crh4/vonnegut/
Klinkowitz, Jerome. Vonnegut in Fact: The Public
Spokesmanship of Personal Fiction. Columbia, SC: University
of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Reed, Peter J. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Warner Books, 1972.
Vit, Marek. Marek Vit's Kurt Vonnegut Corner. 4 Mar. 2002.
25 Feb. 2002
http://geocities.datacellar.net/Hollywood/4953/vonn.html
Vonnegut, Kurt . Cat's Cradle. 1963. New York: Dell
Publishing, 1988
Vonnegut, Kurt. Mother Night. New York: Fawcett, 1962.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Timequake. New York: Putnam, 1997
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Last modified: March 11, 2002