Black Humor in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle
The phrase Black Humor has the broad meaning of poking "fun at subjects considered deadly serious or even taboo by some"2. This definition is simple, and yet embodies an important idea that is often lost in more complex definitions: the idea that Black Humor can actually be "fun", and provoke laughter. This is not, of course, the only important aspect of the term, and I shall explore some of the other important defining features of Black Humor before moving on to discuss its use in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle3.
Many critics have attempted definitions of Black Humor, none of them entirely successfully. The most significant recurring features of these definitions are that Black Humor works with: absurdity, ironic detachment4; opposing moral views held in equipoise, humanity's lack of a sense of purpose in the unpredictable nuclear age, the realization of the complexity of moral and aesthetic experience which affects the individual's ability to choose a course of action5; and a playing with the reader's ideas of reality6.
On their own these elements don't make up what we understand as Black Humor. Combine all of these ideas with the generation of humor, particularly through incongruity, and
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But by the end of the novel, the reader has no firm idea about whether 'right meanings' are possible. This is summarized by John's discovery of the Bokononist paradox, "the heartbreaking necessity to lie about reality, and the heartbreaking impossibility of lying about it"28; that there is no 'true' or 'right' answer to humanity's lack of a sense of purpose in the unpredictable nuclear age. Except perhaps as Voltaire and Kant have suggested in hope, sleep and
Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was the first of the legislation of the federal government in that time. The act made meat consumption healthier, and it saved numerous lives. It even made working conditions more tolerable in the plants. Kolko wrote about reality, what really happened in that time and the readers could understand comprehensively about American history, especially Progressive Era.
Vonnegut uses satire that is both dark and humorous to pursue this point. A good example is found in the prelude of the book where he writes, "Nothing in this book is true. 'Live by the foma [Harmless untruths] that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.'"
Which by the approval of the 1906 Food and Drugs Act, the government succeeded in
The year 1906 brought about a new era in governmental legislation that helped to shape the way privately owned producers of consumable goods would conduct themselves in the future. President Theodore Roosevelt, a man known for his tenaciousness when tackling the issues of the people, pursued these legislative changes, refusing to back down to the lobbyists who stood in his way. One such industry brought to its knees was the meat packing industry, a thriving group of companies that supplied not only the United States but also the markets in Europe with processed foods.
But what really forces Vonnegut to impose his presence on the text is his complete inability to remove himself at all from the act of communication at the core of any work of literature. He revels in that involvement. He has mentioned his desire, what he implies is a universal need of all human beings, for some "soul-deep fun." He uses this term as a synonym for greatness. And this has lead to some nasty comments in fiction workshops about stories that I've written: complaints of flat characters, cartoonish plotlines, non-directed criticism, overall pessimism and over-sentimentality for all things lowbrow. Needless to say, sometimes I feel, to varying degrees of pretension, like Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut was written in 1963. "It is a satirical commentary on modern man and his madness" (back cover). It is a book that counters almost every aspect of our society. As well as satire, Vonnegut also includes apocalyptic elements in this novel.
In the early parts of the 20th century “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair shed some light on the terrifying conditions being held in the meat industry. With the help of Teddy Roosevelt, Strict government laws came into play to regulate the meat packing industry.
2Volume 24, Number 1. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry [Internet]. Los Angeles, CA (USA): CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION; (fall) 2008 [cited 2014 Feb 16]. Available from: http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sinclairs-the-jungle-muckraking-the-meat-packing-industry.html
Broer was the first to call attention to the similarity of movement patterns used in seemingly dissimilar activities such as the baseball pitch, the badminton clear, and the tennis serve. Objective evidence of such similarities between throwing and striking activities within each of the three major upper-extremity patterns; overarm, sidearm and underarm. The representative activities from these categories across throwing patterns also showed great similarity in the muscular action of the lower extremity. Atwater distinguished between the overarm and sidearm throwing patterns in terms of the direction in which the trunk laterally flexed. When lateral flexion occurred away from the throwing arm, and overarm pattern was used; lateral flexion toward the throwing arm indicated a sidearm pattern. The underarm patter is distinguished by motion predominantly in a sagittal plane with the hand below the waist. Each pattern involves a preparatory movement referred to as a backswing, or windup, followed by the establishment of a base of support prior to the initiation of the force phase and ending in the follow-through. The base of support in the direction of the force application; forward and backward is a distinguishing feature of skill level. It has been well documented that more highly skilled individuals have longer strides. Once the base has been established, the more proximal segments begin the force application phase while the more distal segments complete the backswing.
Try to describe a reality that is beyond human imagination. Try to blatantly explain things that are simply non compressive to the human mind. Go ahead; give a best attempt at the impossible task of relating a tragic, messed up situation to the world. Now imagine that it is all you can do to survive. Picture that in order to survive; in order to stay sane, these awful memories that have been buried for so long, need to come to surface. These relapses of time and space need to quit. Someone needs to know. Someone needs to understand. But if it is impossible to describe a reality that is beyond human imagination whether they don’t want to hear it or simply don’t understand, how can a point get across? Although humor is seen as an amusing quality, it is sometimes needed to mask the darkness of a situation. Kurt Vonnegut uses black humor in order to achieve the impossible. As a man trying to escape his own experiences, Vonnegut translates humor through, the detailed explanation of over excessive situations, an obvious distance in emotion, and
Vonnegut deals a lot with fantasy in his book, Cat's Cradle. From the beginning, he talks about the religion that he follows: Bokonism. This is not a real religion, however he has rules, songs, scriptures, and opinions of a person that practices this fantasy religion. Within his description of this religion however is black humor as well. I think that by him making up this whole religion and an entire island of people who follow it, is in a way mocking today's religion and the way that people are dedicated to their beliefs.
Vonnegut’s distinct style conveys that the horrors of war are not only tragic, but inexplicable and absurd. His use of black humor, such as Billy's attempts to publicize his encounters with the Tralfamadorians, conveys the incongruity/senselessness of war (“Slaughterhouse-Five” 267). While this is an example of black humor in a larger plot element, the device can also be used in small details. This is evident in the description of the half-crazed Billy Pilgrim after the Battle of the Bulge. “Wind and cold and violent exercise had turned his face crimson” causing Billy to be designated by Vonnegut as a “filthy flamingo” (Vonnegut 42). By utilizing black humor, Vonnegut is able to convey not merely the tragedy, but also the absurdity, of an event.
In the early twentieth century, at the height of the progressive movement, “Muckrakers” had uncovered many scandals and wrong doings in America, but none as big the scandals of Americas meatpacking industry. Rights and responsibilities were blatantly ignored by the industry in an attempt to turn out as much profit as possible. The meat packers did not care if poor working conditions led to sickness and death. They also did not care if the spoiled meat they sold was killing people. The following paper will discuss the many ways that rights and responsibilities were not being fulfilled by the meat packing industry.
The Jungle caused such an outcry that President Roosevelt tried to mandate government enforcement of sanitary and health standards in the food industry. After Congress wouldn’t pass a meat inspection bill, Roosevelt released the findings of the Neill-Reynolds report. The Neill-Reynolds’s report found that the meat packing industry was as horrendous as Sinclair claime...
some good, some bad. In the book Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses satire to illustrate man’s ability to overcome tragedy through irony and humor.