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
Frank returns with “brooms and dustpans, a blowtorch, a kerosene hot plate, and a good old bucket and rubber gloves.” They all put gloves on, before heating up the bucket with the hot plate and melting chunks of ice-nine inside. They sweep and blowtorch the floor.
The clean-up operation begins, which has an absurd air of domesticity about it.
Themes
John asks Frank, Newt, and Angela to tell him about the story of the dog on the Christmas Eve that Dr. Hoenikker died. The dog was a friendly black Labrador, they explain. All day long Dr. Hoenikker had been “teasing them with hints about ice-nine,” showing them a bottle with a foreboding label. He had been playing games in the kitchen with water, ice-nine and pots and pans. He left a mess in the kitchen, probably planning to clean it later (but then died).
Dr. Hoenikker’s behavior demonstrates that he really did like any adult sense of responsibility, playing with ice-nine like a child. If it had got into the water supply, for example, the world’s water would have frozen even sooner than it does.
Themes
