Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
“A fake religion that admits it's fake turns out to be more honest than science, government, and every institution that claims to tell the truth.”
EraPostmodern / Satirical
Pages287
Difficulty★★★☆☆ Challenging
AP Appearances4
science-ethicsreligion-vs-truthapocalypseabsurdismlies-we-needweapons-of-mass-destructionHigh SchoolAP EnglishCollege
Character Analysis
A writer who set out to document the atomic bomb and ended up witnessing the end of the world. John is Vonnegut's everyman — educated, well-meaning, slightly passive, carried by events rather than driving them. He becomes a Bokononist, accepts the presidency of San Lorenzo, and survives the apocalypse not through heroism but through the same dumb luck that killed everyone else. His narration is flat and deadpan because processing what he's seen in any other register would destroy him.