Use Of Satire In Cat's Cradle

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In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, “Cat’s Cradle” a fictional world is illustrated to mirror the real world in which we live. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut uses a literary method known as satire in order to expose the flaws in two rather large institutions that so many rely on and have complete faith in, these institutions being science and religion. By doing so, Vonnegut is successful in making the flaws these institutions possess known to the reader and provides them with an opportunity to challenge their ideas and opinions about these institutions. Vonnegut begins to satirize religion early on in the novel by creating a fictional religion known as Bokononism. He states that this religion is based on lies and rectifies doing so by stating, “anyone unable to understand a useful religion based on lies will not understand this book either,” referring to the book John, the protagonist, is writing in the novel. In this statement he is suggesting that lies in religion are useful or almost necessary. …show more content…
In the novel, ice-nine holds the ability to practically destroy the world in a small crystal-like sliver. He uses this fictional discovery to satirize the fact that in science, they will stop at nothing even if it puts life on earth at risk. By including ice-nine in the novel he is able to connect the flaws in science to the flaws in religion. Vonnegut makes it a point in the novel that ice-nine is an extremely controlled and secretive discovery that very few know about. When someone in the novel begins to question the discovery, he has a character completely shut them down and try to convince them it is not real. By doing so he makes the reader aware of all of the untruth there is in science. This can connect to religion in the sense that it is also based on lies as proved by Bokonon. By connecting these two institutions and satirizing both, vonnegut relays a very strong message to the
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