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
Angela shows John some of the pictures that she carries with her, many of which are of her father. She talks a little bit about the Christmas when Dr. Hoenikker died. He passed away in a “big white wicker chair facing the sea.” John reminds the reader that she fails to mention the ice-nine she and her siblings divided up between them on the same day.
The reader now knows that ice-nine is real and that it is being carried to San Lorenzo (in fact it is there already). The Hoenikker children never really think about why they divided up the ice-nine, which mirrors their own father’s failure to take responsibility.
Themes
