The Negative Effects Of Science And Technology In Cat's Cradle?

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Technology has stood the test of time. Since as far as we can document, humans have been inventing various forms of technology and science. Humans began making speers, hatchets, and vases and progressed to making cars, trains, and automobiles. As technology evolved over human history, wars also got more complex. With science and engineering, more lethal weapons were being invented; tanks, fighter jets, the modern machine gun, and the atomic bomb. Science and technology can have a very large negative effect on humans. In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Cat’s Cradle, he explores this topic though fate and freewill, truth, and religion. He teaches us lessons on what not to do so as to prevent a disaster. In addition to reading about hypothetical disasters, …show more content…

The story explores the intricacies of the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima. As life progresses, Jonah soon meets a man named Felix who discovered a new isotope of water called ice-nine. Jonah later discovers that ice-nine freezes almost anything that comes in contact. He concludes that it could be used as very dangerous weapon that could wipe out all of humanity by freezing all of the water on earth. He realises this and becomes very nervous. Jonah thinks that the things that happened to him were inevitable because of destiny. He was compelled to do certain actions thereby not having any freewill what so ever. Other times, he thought he was making choices himself would be freewill. This creates one of the major conflicts for the main character in Cat’s Cradle. “Jonah if I had been a Sam, I would have been a Jonah still—not because I have been unlucky for others, but because somebody or something has compelled me to be certain places at certain times, without fail.”(Vonnegut 1). Fate and freewill is the ultimate dilemma of the whole novel. Jonah had freechoice in the way he wanted to die. The conflict is whether or not that freechoice was actually free will if the outcomes of any decision he would make was already predetermined. He is destined to die either way and his choice of how to die, was merely a characteristic of his death. On the contrary, it was his destiny that he was going to die. Jonah really had no free will at all. I think that in many instances in the book, characters think that they are making decisions about their lives, when in fact, destiny might have already determined the outcome. Any decision a character makes, is just

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