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
John reads about Bokonon’s life. He was born in 1891, was originally an “Episcopalian and a British subject on the island of Tobago.” He came from a wealthy family and was christened “Lionel Boyd Johnson.” He did well at school; that said, the fourteenth calypso from The Books of Bokonon details a taste for hedonism in his early days.
The title of this chapter, as with many others, is highly ironic: Saint Augustine is one of the central figures in the growth of Christianity. Similarly, he had a taste for “the flesh” in his youth.
Themes
