Cat’s Cradle
(Kurt Vonnegut)

Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indiana in 1922. Kurt’s father was a wealthy architect, though the depression hit the family hard and Kurt was forced to attend public school, unlike his siblings who had attended private school. He worked for his high school newspaper, and after graduating, he attended Cornell University where he studied biochemistry at the urging of his father and brother. Vonnegut had little interest in science, however, and wrote for the Cornell Daily Sun. Cornell considered expelling Vonnegut for poor grades, so he enlisted in the US Army, which is where he gained a lot of influence for his subsequent writings, especially his most well-known foray, “Slaughterhouse-Five” (1969).

During the 1950s and 1960s, Vonnegut became known for his satirical, dystopian literature which often poked fun at the world’s real issues. In 1963, he published “Cat’s Cradle”, a novel which took jabs at the arms race, science, technology, and religion amongst others. Vonnegut became inspired to write “Cat’s Cradle” when he worked for General Electric; his job was to interview scientists, and he observed that the older scientists seldom put much thought or importance into what their inventions may be used for. In “Cat’s Cradle” the fictional inventor of the atomic bomb is playing a game of cat’s cradle when the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. In doing this, he seems carefree. Vonnegut submitted “Cat’s Cradle” as his thesis for his Master’s in Anthropology, after his original idea had been declined; the novel earned him his degree in 1971.