The Arms Race In Cat's Cradle

How far is too far? As human beings we have an innate sense of curiosity. As a result, human beings push the boundaries of what is possible. However, we rarely stop and ask ourselves the aforementioned question. Our selfish desires can send us beyond the limits of what would be beneficial not for ourselves but rather that of everyone. Too often humanity strives for power and will go as far as warping nature itself to satisfy the needs of themselves. This mentality was what was prevalent during the Cold War years. The arms race between America and the Soviet Union was about who could obtain the most nuclear weapons when only one could end all life on the planet. Likewise, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a story of how a small filament ended most of the life on Earth. The novel Cat’s Cradle was first published during 1963 but the content of

Leading up to the climax of the novel it was revealed the leader of San Lorenzo, “Papa” Monzano, had committed suicide by ingesting ice-nine thus freezing his body. The narrator and Dr.Honikker’s children planned to eliminate the ice-nine by burning “Papa” Monzano on a funeral pyre. Prior to this an airplane crashed into the castle where he was kept and he fell into the ocean freezing all of the water on the planet. Ice-nine had a higher freezing point than the regular ice on Earth. The effects of the ice-nine on nature were described as

It only took a body infused with ice-nine to end the world. In spite of the bleak topic presented in this novel, Kurt Vonnegut was able to create an entertaining and comedic allegory while poking fun at the stupidity of the policy with satire. As Vonnegut once said, “Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do