Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (Book Analysis) E-Book

Bright Summaries

• Herausgeber: BrightSummaries.com
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: BrightSummaries.com
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 22

Beschreibung

Unlock the more straightforward side of Cat’s Cradle with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, which centres around the late scientist Dr Felix Hoenikker and the deadly weapons he has left behind. Not only was Hoenikker one of the creators of the atomic bomb (he was playing cat’s cradle when the bomb fell on Hiroshima, hence the novel’s title), but he also created ice-nine, which has the power to instantly freeze all the water on the planet. Cat’s Cradle is among Kurt Vonnegut’s best-known works; he was also the author of the acclaimed anti-war satire Slaughterhouse-Five, which is partly based on his own experiences during the Second World War.

Find out everything you need to know about Cat’s Cradle in a fraction of the time!

This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:
• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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Leseprobe

KURT VONNEGUT

AMERICAN WRITER

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1922.Died in Manhattan, New York in 2007.Notable works:The Sirens of Titan (1959), novelSlaughterhouse-Five (1969), novelBreakfast of Champions (1973), novel

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1992. His father Kurt Sr. was an architect, and his mother Edith was from a wealthy brewing family. Vonnegut wrote for and edited student newspapers at high school and Cornell University, where he found writing to be more enjoyable and less stressful than his degree in biochemistry.

Having enlisted in the US army in 1943, he was sent to Europe in late 1944, captured soon after, and lived through the Allied bombing of the German city of Dresden as a prisoner. When he returned home, he married Jane Marie Cox and studied anthropology at the University of Chicago, working as a reporter at night, before becoming a full-time writer in 1952. Vonnegut’s early novels were extremely varied in style and content, sometimes containing elements of science fiction, and were moderately successful. He rose to fame when his 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five became a bestseller. He wrote sporadically for the next decade due to personal difficulties, but then published a series of successful novels through the 1980s and 90s. He died in 2007 in New York.

Today, Vonnegut’s work remains extremely popular with the general public and is also widely studied in academic environments. Fellow writers often comment on the ease with which he wrote, despite the fragmented style he employed and the often difficult and painful subjects that he tackled.

CAT’S CRADLE

A ZANY AND EXPERTLY ENTERTAINING YARN ABOUT THE FUTILITY OF MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION

Genre: novelReference edition: Vonnegut, K. (2011) Cat’s Cradle. London: Penguin.1stedition: 1963Themes: religion, fate, power, technology, the arms race, globalisation

In the late 1940s, Kurt Vonnegut worked in the public relations department of the General Electric research company, where he interviewed scientists about their research methods. The picture he got of men so tied up in the pursuit of knowledge, and so uninterested in the practical applications of their discoveries – in arms development for example – directly influenced his portrayal of the scientist Dr Felix Hoenikker in Cat’s Cradle: the fictional inventor of the atom bomb.

Like Vonnegut’s most famous and celebrated novel, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat’s Cradle