Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cat’s Cradle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Morality
Religion
Governance, Politics, and Nationhood
Absurdity and Meaninglessness
Summary
Analysis
All the passengers from the plane are part of the ceremony crowd. John, from the present-day, tells the reader they are “almost all dead now.” A buffet is laid out, with barracuda, crabs and “bite-sized cubes of boiled albatross.” An alcoholic drink made from acetone is served in coconut shells.
The food and drink mirror the occasion itself in that they are presented ceremonially but in truth are a bit strange. The albatross is a harbinger of doom (e.g. in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge.) Acetone is a solvent—not something desirable to drink.
Themes
Crosby drinks the rum, looking out at the cardboard targets in the sea. Each of these is a significant figure from history. Hazel spots “Hitler … old Mussolini and some old Jap.” There are also cutouts of Karl Marx and Chairman Mao. Crosby says, “they got practically every enemy that freedom ever had out there.”
Crosby doesn’t miss a chance to drink. He and Hazel present a naïve, simplified account of the world bases on America being the good guy, battling valiantly against its evil enemies. Marx is perhaps unfairly targeted given he was never a dictator/authoritarian.
Themes
