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The Arms Race In Cat's Cradle

945 Words4 Pages

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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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Throughout Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut intertwines reality and fiction to provide the reader with an anti-war book in a more abstract form. To achieve this abstraction, Kurt Vonnegut utilizes descriptive images, character archetypes, and various themes within the novel. By doing so, he created a unique form of literature that causes the reader to separate reality from falsehood in both their world, and in the world within Vonnegut’s mind. Vonnegut focuses a lot on the characters and their actions in “Slaughterhouse Five.”

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Joseph Rotblat, 1995 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, stated, “I have to bring to your notice a terrifying reality: with the development of nuclear weapons Man has acquired, for the first time in history, the technical means to destroy the whole of civilization in a single act” (“Joseph”). Nearly fifty years before Rotblat’s warning, the world witnessed devastation when the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan during World War II. Over 200,000 people perished. Just five years after these tragic days in history, Ray Bradbury, one of the most inspiring artists of the twentieth century, conveys a view similar to Rotblat in his short story, “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” (“Ray”).Throughout this story, Bradbury dramatizes the American Dream as an American Nightmare resulting from

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 Using satire in the form of self-destruction in the story, is the Bokonists practice of Boko-maru.   Boko-maru is “the Bokononist ritual, or the mingling of awareness,” (Vonnegut 158). This is a very pointless part of the religion that seems to be based on nothing at all. Bokononism says “it is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving the person, provided the feet of both persons are clean and nicely tended,” (Vonnegut 158).   The author is being sarcastic because a Boko-maru comes from a religion that is essentially a pack of lies, but also has a feature that is strangely

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The creative ways Kurt Vonnegut intertwined the novels aspects to the bombing allowed for extreme emphasis and attention to be focused on the important event. The story of the Dresden air raid is not often told but through a different science fiction outlet Vonnegut was able to bring attention to the event. The significance of this somewhat ordinary science fiction novel is brought to life by the anti war message and details about World War

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People are influenced by the events that surround them. Individuals transform into a product of their environment and experiences of the time. The literature and art often reflects the time period in which it is written in, and Vonnegut’s novel is no exception. The novel takes place during World War II, but is written during the time of the Vietnam War. With the Vietnam War, came a lot of anti-war propaganda.

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Trout uses science fiction and its different elements such as cognitive estrangement and structural fabulation in order to build a metaphor that guides the reader into thinking about an aspect of society that the author wants to criticize. This communicative piece intends to portray social criticism in the way Vonnegut does it, but taken to our reality and analyzing aspects we want to condemn. We opened the book on chapter nine and decided to write our own new plot as if Billy Pilgrim was the one reading it. We wrote the text and inserted it as part of the chapter in order to adhere it to the rest of society’s criticism seen in the book in the very best Vonnegut style. In order to interpret Vonnegut’s intentions and purpose of social criticism throughout Slaughterhouse Five, specially in chapter nine, it´s necessary to understand science fiction and its elements.

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In “2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut,” Vonnegut maintains that we cannot put a cap on the population. The cap creates problems and deteriorates a much-needed stigma behind the idea of death. Death is and always has been the last experience a human has and it is their right to do so as they desire. Thus, this everlasting conflict in humanity supports that there can be no cap. Paul Ehrlich was the front man for the idea that we would run out of resources and live in squalor, which would lead to situations like the one in “2BR02B”.

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They have it in Sweden.” (Hattenhauer 387) Given this and many more instances where Vonnegut’s spoken word was documented in support of left-wing politics, this interpretation of Vonnegut’s intent behind the story is much more convincing. Political context analysis of the story’s

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Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society stands as a defining moment in American history, focused on social reform on a large range of issues. While the fix of racial equality and quality of life for the American people were undeniably important themes, a closer look reveals that Johnson’s ideals were deeply rooted in a commitment to improving educational quality and opportunity for the American people. Examining Johnson's own statements and the design of the Great Society's educational programs makes it clear that fostering a more educated citizenry was the cornerstone of his uplifting plan. LBJ’s focus for reform was on improvement in education systems for children.

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Psychologists and Pseudo-Scientists have long sought to explain the inborn human desire for self destruction. Selfishness against one’s own benefit, the urge to harm or take on harm for the sake of one’s own security, drinking, smoking, these clearly injurious thoughts and actions seduce individuals by an instinct Freud coins the “Death Drive” (Beyond the Pleasure Principle 30). Moreover, as advances in genetic engineering tear the veil between science fiction and fact, modern critics have questioned how this suicidal drive may push into uncharted frontiers. Such concerns have fostered a fear of unadulterated scientific progress captured within the works of Margaret Atwood. Oryx and Crake, especially, utilizes almost hyperbolic predictions of scientific innovation as evidence of a deeper self-destructive nature, and as justification for fear.

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The short story “Harrison Bergeron”, was first published in October 1961 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Some other works Kurt Vonnegut has written are, “Player Piano”, “The Sirens of Titan”, “Mother Night”, and “Cats Cradle” are just a few of the novels Vonnegut has written. Kurt Vonnegut has drawn on facts and incidents in his own life in his writings. Kurt’s short stories range from visions of future societies, that are extensions of modern societies. Many of his writings are ones that are science fiction.

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Storytelling has been the epitome of human expression for thousands of years. Along with musicians and artists, talented storytellers use their work to share ideas with others, often in an effort to evoke emotion or to persuade people to think similarly. Every element in a story is carefully crafted by the author in order to communicate a desired message to his or her audience. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut incorporates irony into the story to express his belief that fighting wars is illogical.

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