Cat's Cradle: Analysis of Major Characters
"Cat's Cradle: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex characters that populate Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, each embodying themes of morality, science, and the absurdity of existence. The narrator, John, serves as a Cornell-educated journalist who interviews the children and friends of the deceased Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose inventions lead to catastrophic consequences. Dr. Hoenikker, characterized by his detachment from human concerns, created ice-nine, a substance with the potential to freeze the world, illustrating the ethical void in scientific advancement. His children—cynical Newt, practical Angela, and immature Franklin—each grapple with their father’s legacy in distinct ways, revealing deeper reflections on family and responsibility.
The setting of San Lorenzo introduces "Papa" Monzano, a dictatorial leader whose reliance on science leads him to a tragic end, and Lionel Boyd Johnson, known as Bokonon, who provides a philosophical counterpoint through his creation of a religion rooted in comforting falsehoods. Together, these characters weave a narrative that critiques the intersection of science, religion, and human folly, prompting readers to reflect on the implications of knowledge and belief in a chaotic world.
Cat's Cradle: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
First published: 1963
Genre: Novel
Locale: Ilium, New York, and the Caribbean Republic of San Lorenzo
Plot: Science fiction
Time: The early 1960's
John, the narrator. John, a Cornell-educated journalist, spends the course of the book interviewing the friends and children of Dr. Felix Hoenikker for a book about the day the atom bomb was dropped. John is always perfectly gracious and objective in his interviews, even when his subjects are hostile and impute ulterior motives to his writing. His research takes him to the island nation of San Lorenzo, where he unintentionally becomes president and witnesses the unleashing of ice-nine, which freezes the world.
Dr. Felix Hoenikker, a Nobel Prize-winning atomic scientist and creator of ice-nine. He already is dead as the book opens, but much of his later life is uncovered by the narrator. Fascinated by the puzzles of nature, Hoenikker has very little interest in people. He had no interest in the human implications of the atom bomb he helped create, nor in the potential human harm his invention of ice-nine may cause. The novel ends with Hoenikker's invention freezing, and thus destroying, the entire earth.
Newt Hoenikker, a midget, the youngest child of Dr. Hoenikker. Newt is a cynical young man whose one-week marriage to a Ukrainian midget named Zinka apparently was a ruse designed to obtain the secret of ice-nine for the Soviet Union. An incident from his childhood explains the name of the novel: On the day the atom bomb was dropped on Japan, Dr. Hoenikker dangled a string in the form of a “cat's cradle” in front of six-year-old Newt, causing the boy to cry.
Angela Hoenikker, later Mrs. Harrison C. Conners, Newt and Franklin's sister, the eldest of Dr. Hoenikker's children. Tall and homely, Angela dropped out of high school in her sophomore year to take care of her father and brothers after her mother died. Her only diversion was playing the clarinet. After her father died, she lost much of her purpose, until she met Harrison C. Conners, a handsome researcher in her father's lab. They were married shortly after meeting. She paints a storybook picture of her marriage, although Newt asserts that her husband is unfaithful. Franklin implies that Conners married her only to get the secret of ice-nine for the U.S. government.
Franklin (Frank) Hoenikker, the middle child of Dr. Hoenikker. He is a major general and minister of science and progress in the Caribbean republic of San Lorenzo. An immature-looking twenty-six-year-old, Frank went to San Lorenzo after escaping the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which sought him for smuggling cars to Cuba. As an adolescent, Frank was ignored by classmates, who called him “Secret Agent X-9” because he kept to himself. His time alone was spent building models, though near the end of the book he reveals that he had not always been alone: He had an affair with his boss's wife.
“Papa” Monzano, the dictatorial president of San Lorenzo. A native of the island republic, Monzano is the handpicked successor of Corporal Earl McCabe, an American who began the current regime on San Lorenzo in the 1920's. Like McCabe, he pretends opposition to Bokonon. Tiring of a system based on lies, Monzano, now in his late seventies, brought Frank Hoenikker to San Lorenzo as a way of turning to science. Learning from Frank the secret of ice-nine, Monzano commits suicide by swallowing it, thereby freezing himself and, by contact with him, all the water on earth.
Lionel Boyd Johnson, called Bokonon, a philosopher and opponent of Monzano. Born on the island of Tobago in 1891, Johnson washed up on the shores of San Lorenzo in 1922, along with U.S. Army Corporal Earl McCabe. McCabe became the island's ruler and, discovering that he could not relieve its poverty, sought to make its people happy with harmless lies. Johnson (“Bokonon” in the native dialect) created a new religion, which McCabe pretended to suppress, playing the evil dictator while Bokonon became the good holy man in the jungle. His religion, Bokononism, is based on the principle that all religions are foma (harmless lies), including Bokononism.