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
“Papa” addresses the gathering, directing his words at the new American ambassador; he mistakenly thinks this is H. Lowe Crosby rather than Minton. He says, “you are coming to the best friend America ever had. America is misunderstood many places, but not here.” H. Lowe Crosby points out Minton as the real ambassador.
“Papa”s mistake serves to highlight the artifice of the occasion—it’s all symbolic, signifying nothing. His comment about America being misunderstood is a satirical quip about America’s place in the world. The point is that Crosby looks more like “Papa”s idea of what an American should be.
Themes
“Papa” winces in pain, before shaking Minton’s hand. He promises that San Lorenzo is a Christian and “anti-communist” place. He explains that tomorrow is “one of the happiest days” for the nation—“The Day of the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy” and the engagement of Frank and Mona. Minton congratulates him, and the newly-weds.
Minton has already demonstrated on the plane that he is no longer impressed by such occasions, but he knows how to go through the motions. “Papa” is extremely keen to emphasize how much San Lorenzo is pro-America and anti-Soviet.
Themes
Minton pretends that every American schoolchild knows the story of the noble sacrifice of the “Hundred Martyrs to Democracy.” He has been asked by his president, he says, to through a wreath into the sea tomorrow to honor San Lorenzo’s role in World War Two. “Papa” looks in pain again, suddenly telling the crowd to ‘go home!’ He collapses.
Minton tells a white lie which hints at the bleaker truth that most people are not very clued up on their history anyway. The ceremony will be a huge occasion, but not in the way that it’s intended. “Papa’s” sickness suggests the fragility of the San Lorenzo set-up.
Themes
