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
Crosby, Hazel, and Newt take John back in the taxi-cab to what is left of Frank’s house by the waterfall. All that’s left is the cave behind the waterfall, which is now “a sort of igloo under a translucent, blue-white dome of ice-nine.” Those apart from John and Mona initially took shelter in a dungeon of the palace.
The title of this chapter is a reference to the book of the same name, in which a family is shipwrecked but manages to survive on a desert island before their eventual rescue. The situation in that book is much more hopeful and idyllic than the one faced here.
Themes
Frank has painted white stars and “U.S.A.” on the taxi-cab; he left the paint somewhere, which was then used by someone else to write the poem John saw by the palace gate. John assumes Angela, Philip, and Julian are dead, but doesn’t want to ask how yet.
Frank, who is no longer a U.S. citizen, seems to revert to type, employing the hollow symbols of his home country.
Themes
As he rides in the cab, John is surprised by the “gaiety” of the others. Hazel explains: “wait until you see how we live. We’ve got all kinds of good things to eat. Whenever we want water, we just build a campfire and melt some. The Swiss Family Robinson – that’s what we call ourselves.”
Hazel seems totally ignorant of the immense destruction that has just been brought to bear on humanity.
Themes
