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Ice Nine Satire Essay

650 Words3 Pages

K. M. Zeigler
Mr. Shambaugh
American Literature
1 March 2023
Ice-Nine as an Allegory
Ice-nine is a fictional type of ice that instructs water to change its structure to ice-nine and freeze without a temperature change, found in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Ice-nine represents scientific discoveries that destroy life. Ice-nine is an allegorical reference to all catalysts that in forethought seemed beneficial, but end up causing the annihilation of something indispensable to the continuation of existence. Kurt Vonnegut’s opinions about the atomic bomb were portrayed through the allegorical reference of ice-nine to the real-life atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan.
Ice-nine represents technological advancements that cause unbelievable destruction; …show more content…

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki similarly were created to help end a war, which they did, but also created a horrific aftermath of destruction. Kurt Vonnegut’s book Cat’s Cradle puts the concept of the atomic bomb into the form of ice-nine, both substances that will dramatically alter the world for the worse. Both creations do in fact solve the problems they were created to solve, but they create a slew of new dilemmas. Vonnegut uses Jonah’s attitude toward ice-nine to show the concept of Vonnegut’s attitude toward the atomic …show more content…

In Cat’s Cradle, ice-nine creates apocalyptic collapse. Kurt Vonnegut wants to portray that the atomic bomb very well could’ve created apocalyptic collapse as well. In fact, the damage Hiroshima and Nagasaki endured was far worse than what scientists had predicted considering the burns and radiation many victims suffered for years prior. Even though the bombs did not end the world, they created an entirely new scheme of warfare. Both the atomic bomb and ice-nine are discoveries that were based off the smallest building blocks of matter. The atomic bomb was based on the atom and ice-nine was based off of the structure of water. The scientists that created the atomic bomb knew to an extent what they had created and the purpose it was being create for. Dr. Felix Hoenikker knew what he was getting into when he investigated and researched the creation of ice-nine. Both scientists knew the ramifications of their discoveries; however, both decided to publicize their

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