Preview

Cats Cradle

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
799 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cats Cradle
Eddie Costello
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The book begins with a writer researching for his book . John, the author and narrator of this story, wants to create a factual book about “The day the world ended”. It was about the day that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and what important American people were doing on that day. He talks with Newt, son of Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the creator of the atomic bomb. John soon learns of ice-nine (a tiny bit of it could freeze all the water in the world) from Asa Breed, the supervisor of the lab where Felix worked on the bomb. Asa at first lies about the existence of ice-nine. John also discovers that Frank, the other son of Felix, is on an island called San Lorenzo. He goes there to research more for his book.
On the plane John meets Newt. He reads a book about the religion of Bokononism and it's customs. Shortly after arriving on San Lorenzo the President falls ill. Frank, who is going to marry the President's daughter, Mona, doesn't feel up to the job of being president so he asks John to do it. After a lot of convincing John says yes. He learns that the reason Bokononism was outlawed was to give the religious life of the people more meaning, it was Bokonon's idea. During John's inauguration, the former president dies. It soon becomes apparent that he committed suicide with a sliver of ice-nine. Frank, John, and Newt clean up the mess and go out to watch the air show. During the air show something goes wrong and a plane crashes. The explosion causes the house to tip and the president's body to fall into the sea. The ice-nine in his body freezes all the oceans of the world and causes an incredible storm. John and Mona hide in a dungeon until the storms stop. When the storms stop they rise to find that the survivors had all committed suicide with the ice-nine. Seeing this Mona does the same. John wanders the island until he finds Newt and the Crosbys, who are still alive. From then on they live on the barren

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The book starts off casually explaning the normal life of Ender, mentioning his family life with his brother Peter and sister Valentine, and some of his school life. The story picks up when he gets into a fight with a long time bully of his. Unanounced to him, the fight is actually fatal to the bully. When he explains that he fought now to stop it later, he gets a offer to join Battle School, with the only issue being he has to leave his family behind and go into space.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Slabhenge And Grisby

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The book started out with Jonathan grisby on a boat heading to scar island and when he got there he was sent to the admiral. When he met the admiral he was told to write a note to his parents saying it's his fault he is here and will be taken care of.…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The story starts during the World War II around 1941 when the author was twelve years old.…

    • 3751 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The cold, lonely, bareness of the storm mirrors Ann’s inner feelings of being inconsolable and isolated. When the storm begins and John leaves, is when Ann’s own personal storm begins as well. She tries keeping busy by painting and keeping the house warm by adding to the fire, like keeping the desire for John alive, but soon enough the cold of the storm overwhelms the home. “It was getting cold again, and she left her painting to put in more wood. But this time the warmth spread slowly”(231). Ann’s feelings for John are beginning to fade and she thinks he isn’t what she wants anymore. The cold represents Steven, slowly making his way in and taking over any loyalty Ann had left for John. Ann’s attempt to keep the house warm and the cold out…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main character and the author in the book, Night is Elie Wiesel. The book Night is about a family going to a concentration camp called Auschwitz. Elie has to make some major life choices. Also, how he changes a lot throughout the story is very noticeable.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Novels are written to give a message to the world; this message can be good or bad, important or superficial, critical or supportive, but every story needs an initial purpose. Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, was published post World War II and follows the life of Billy Pilgrim who witnesses the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany during that time. On the surface, the story seems to be just a jumble of confusion and chaos without any significant insight into life, war, or human nature. However, it is by means of the perspectives and details of the novel that Vonnegut brings about his point. Through Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut portrays both mankind's constant struggle to try to control life and also its inability to actually…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Being brought to the World State is ultimately led to John’s suicide because from the moment he, Linda, Lenina, and Bernard returned from the reservation he was an oddity, a rare find, a different person from anybody else and he was treated as such. His beliefs were belittled and thrown away because they were “out of date” and there was no room for old things in the new…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Red Tape Gang

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The story start in a place in Los Angeles in the middle of 1974, all the history will be narrated for Michael that is the main character in that book. One day Michael was talking with his family when he said them one morning…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The author distinctively creates a mysterious combination of two different narratives in his book. Some chapters are titled “Hard-Boiled Wonderland”, others are presenting a description of the end of the world. “Hard Boiled Wonderland” reminds me of the narrative common for science fiction or fantasy tales. This is a world where no one has a name, only a role or occupation. The part of the book titled “The End of the World,” on the other hand, is a story of an amateur who is seeking for a place in an isolated town, surrounded by an enormous wall. The narrator has been separated from his shadow and will soon be separated from his mind. Even though the stories seem…

    • 1629 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Their story starts three months ago, June 16th. During the height of the war, with the threat of an atomic bomb prevalent, the British were moving their young to boarding schools outside of the area under threat. While in flight, their plane was shot down leaving these boys stranded on a deserted island for over 2 months.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    That night they struggled to keep warm as well as struggled to sleep, especially with the crying and complaining of all the injured or freezing passengers. These passengers discovered the radio from the plane had been broke during the crash. They had became excited for a little bit when they figured out they had a mechanic on board. With bad news to all of them he couldn’t get the radio to work. Three different search parties had searched for the plane but due to the plane being white, it was hard to see the plane in the snow. The search for the plane and any survivors had been cancelled on the eleventh day.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Long Walk

    • 1692 Words
    • 7 Pages

    novel. To understand this story one would need to understand the author himself. As his…

    • 1692 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the end,Bernard,HelmHoltz,and Joh all say goodbye. John is not allowed to go to the island with both Bernard and HelmHoltz because it is part of Monds experiment. John is sent to an abandoned lighthouse on a hill outside of London. John gets the the lighthouse and wishes that it were more abondoned. He is also unhappy because it isnt miserable enough. He goes on with his plan to plant a garden and make a bow and arrow to hunt animals. John finds himself pleased and happy with the way hes living. He then finds himself being happy but ends up purging himslef because the reason he came there was to be miserable and think of the death of his mother and the horror of the civilized world. Three deltas wonder by johns home and catch him whipping himself. The next day a reporter comes up to John,John freaks out and assaults the…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Painted Door

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages

    2. John was a victim of his wife’s betrayal. He was able to fight his way through the storm only because of his love and devotion for Ann. But little did John know that Ann had surrendered to the storm while he was trying to fight the storm only to come home, to see what was happening while he was gone. Before John left for his fathers, he said to Ann, “Twice a week before we were married I never missed and there were bad blizzards that winter” (p. 1). John truly loved Ann but she betrayed him which led to his death the night of the terrible storm. It was Ann’s disappointing love and actions that made John think that he was a bad husband. Which led to John going back out into the storm, he thought that with him out of the picture Ann and Steven could be happy together. Due to Ann’s and Steven’s actions John died. John was a victim- not of the snow, but of his wife’s betrayal.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    kitty

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Interpersonal communication is extremely common in my life. In order to have an effective communication, I should increase my understanding of self and other. For this aim, interpersonal communication course provides a great deal of communication concept to help me understanding myself and analyzing my communication behavior. Not only that, but also that I want to analyzing my parents’ communication behavior so as to enhance the efficacy of their communication.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics