I have read
some more of Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt
Vonnegut Jr. This book is really starting to grow on me. However, there are
some parts that I do not understand the importance of. One such example is when
the narrator is in the cemetery showroom. The narrator meets the brother of a
man that he encountered earlier in the book and sees the name of his own ancestors
on a tombstone. My guess is that the point of this is to show the narrator that
everything is intertwined, but it seems like there could be better ways of
doing this. The book starts to really get interesting when everyone arrives on
the island of San Lorenzo. Through a strange turn of events, the narrator
becomes the new president of San Lorenzo. At the ceremony to celebrate the “Hundred
Martyrs to Democracy”, which the narrator resides over, Minton gives a speech
that nicely explains the purpose of the book. He abandons his formal speech
that he prepared and speaks straight from his heart. Minton starts out powerfully
by stating that war murders children. He goes on to say that he believes that
there should not fancy ceremonies celebrating children lost at war. Instead, he
points out that people can only take part in festivities if “we the celebrants,
are working consciously and tirelessly to reduce the stupidity and viciousness
of ourselves and of all mankind.” Basically, Minton is saying that instead of
focusing on those who died, we should be trying to stop people from dying. This
really spoke to me. It also helped me to realize that the purpose of this novel
is to make the readers realize the stupidity of our society and to try to
change our ways before it is too late. Unfortunately, I doubt that enough
people will read this book for it to make any kind of impact on the world as a
whole. This novel has certainly changed my views, however. Cat’s Cradle is truly a literary masterpiece.
ggwp
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