Life and Death in Cats Cradle
Life is a struggle to defy the inevitable. Since the beginning of time man has contemplated his own death, labored over the meaning of life, and created religion to explain all that he can not understand. Death at some point will catch up with all of society and at some point the entire world as human beings have come to know it will come to an end. No one can hide from death or attempt to out run its ever-expanding claw; death is absolute. It is possibly the only certainty in all of human existence. Whether the sun explodes sucking itself into its own infinite gravity, or human beings finally manage to destroy this beautiful planet, life will end. All great societies have come to tragic anti-climatic ends. The Romans slowly poisoned themselves through their use of an amazingly complex lead piping system, and Athens feel eventually to an equally dismal fate. In our modern society the world has watched as many threats of global destruction have come and gone. The fact that currently the nuclear arsenal of the United States alone could easily destroy all of earth leaves many fearing that the end is near. The contemplation of ones eventual demise leads one to think that life is no longer worth the effort to live. In Cats Cradle the destruction of the world is realized by the invention of a substance capable of freezing all water on earth. Its inventor was a peaceful man, a man who invented for the sake of discovery, for the sake of the human race. It was only after his death, that the greed and stupidity of man allowed this substance to end all man has struggled to create. Throughout human existence man’s disregard for his home and his environment is evident in all aspects of cultural. This disregard for the frailties of nature will eventually lead to the death of all humanity.
In Cat’s Cradle the narrator John winds his way through the events that eventually lead to the destruction of the human race. Life to John is a quest; a quest that is defined finally by his new found religion Bokononism. He feels that everyone in his life revolves around him as they all search for something of meaning in their lives; this group is called a karass. Life is a gift that is never solicited and often unappreciated after given.
"All the things I am about to tell you are shameless lies." So begins the Books of Bokonon. Bokononism is an original religion that is introduced in this book, Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The book shows the importance of religion, even if that religion is "shameless lies". It also displays how people convince themselves that things are better then they really are. I read this book because of a promise I made to my father. I'm glad I made that promise; I just read a delightfully funny and deep tale about the end of the world.
The fight between addressing control you could call your own life and having confidence in predetermination is one that has been continuing for quite a while. The perspectives of which is truth are particular for everyone and they can be needy after anything from their experiences in life to how they were raised. In the novel, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, individual control and the thought of fate are two contending strengths all through the story. While John is endeavoring to compose a book about the Hiroshima bomb dropping, his exploration goes up against him an experience that was out of his control. He watches how a couple of other characters' lives were unfathomably impacted by the bomb and what they have done resulting to the event. As I would see it, the story rotates substantially more around the subject of predetermination and tolerating your destiny than whatever else.
The main arguments in The End of Nature is that as a result of human cons...
He is trapped inside a world where they do not have any hardships, they have no real meaning in life. John observes that the citizens lives are not expensive enough stating that “nothing costs enough here,” (Huxley 239). When John says this he is stating that the people's life have no value. They do not live for anything. Not for love, not for nobility, not for sorrow, nothing.
Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle I believe that Vonnegut uses Cat's Cradle as an allegorical tale about what will happen to the world if we are not careful with technology that has the ability to end life on this planet. He points out one of the qualities of humanity: that people make mistakes, thus poisoning our minds and encouraging a better world. One of the obvious ways that Vonnegut uses this book to "encourage a better world" would be by showing that the end of the world may come from an accidental release of technology. At the time when this book was written, nuclear war seemed to be almost a certainty.
Modern medicine has proved that the best way to prevent the contraction of a disease for humans is to inject a tolerable amount of the virus into the host and let the individual's immune system build a defense capable of withstanding future invasions of the same strand. The small pox vaccination, for example, has eliminated the disease from almost every nation on Earth.
A normal cold winter night made an unusual turn when little kitten cries were heard coming from the side of the Livingston First Baptist Church. Then, a mom cat was spotted on the side of the building trying to keep her kitten and herself warm, fed and healthy. The mom cat was skin and bones, as she was fighting the cold and nursing her litter of kittens.
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.
For many cat owners, their cat’s impulse to scratch can become a disastrous problem. Cat owners believe that the only logical solution is to have the cat declawed. It’s natural for cats to scratch and use their our claws to live their daily lives. Cats use their claws to play, climb, and in many situations as a form of self-defense. So the question that presents itself, is it really necessary for cat owners to have cats declawed. The only problem with declawing cats is that it is unnecessary and inhumane mutilation. Many cat owners should be more aware take advantage of the other safer and more humane alternatives for their cats.
The article by Jared Diamond called “The End of The World as We Know Them” explains to us we have the chance to change our future from previous civilianization like Mayans. One alternative that we can infer is a stronger focus on benefiting the earth and not our self. For example instead of using war to gain more resources from other countries and cause more damage to other civilization, we should all live in peace and live natural energy from the sun like solar panels. If we keep the ground that we live on, we can keep our lives that we dwell on.
Despite the increasing amount of scientific evidence that support global climate change, many countries still use fossil fuels. The U.S. in particular is considering the revitalization of the coal industry instead of focusing on the production of clean energy. This inability to change will eventually lead to our downfall and our world will become like that of Lauren’s. In order for our survival, we have to seek out other planets because we are not changing fast enough for the sake of our planet. As our world’s climate continues to change rapidly, our resources are running and we are starting to split the world’s population into two groups: the wealthy and the poor. This is a sign that our world might become like that of Lauren’s dystopia. We cannot continue to live in this world with the belief that there is a world after death, like Lauren says, “We'll adapt. We'll have to. God is Change” (Butler, 147). We, human race, have to adapt and change or else we will eventually disappear. There is no supernatural being that can save us from our own destruction because the human race refuses to change. Even if we manage to move another planet, we will eventually turn that planet into another hell. The problem is not with the world, it is with
The external conflict of nature against man never becomes resolved, as nature ends the man and his goals. For example, the severe cold weather prevented the man fro...
...is destroying persons and the environment….What I am suggesting is that it might be the only chance for the turning of human beings from a course leading to the deterioration and perhaps the end of life on this planet.” ³
She constructed her argument with the help of a fable having an initial state of harmony and productivity, then a drastic and profound fall silencing rebirth of new life with the introduction of chemical poisons. Then, she dramatically exposes the culprit behind the destruction, humans. However, it is just a story; she explains it has a thousand counterparts all over the world. The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon nature is the contamination of air, earth, rivers and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. It took eons of time to produce, to develop, to evolve and to diversify life and reach a state of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. However, the situati...
Creating suspense is oftentimes critical for a writer. Using suspense in a story has the reader eager to learn what may materialize at the end. When authors use suspense they want the reader to be surprised, anxious, curious, and consumed by the time the reader reaches the conclusion of a story. William Faulkner does just that in his short story “A Rose for Emily.” The point of view that this story is written in helps keep the reader in suspense. The narrator is someone on the outside looking in. If the story were written in Emily’s point of view, the foreshadowing technique Faulkner uses would not have worked as well as it does. When an author foreshadows an event, this is just one way of generating suspense for the reader. Falkner’s use of foreshadowing throughout the story has the reader anxious to know what exactly will happen at the climax. Faulkner lures the reader into continuing the story in anticipation of why the death of Emily is such a big and exciting event for the townspeople.