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 asks the driver about the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy. He explains that, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, San Lorenzo had conscripted a hundred men to fight for the U.S.A. They were put on a ship to the States, which was sunk, killing all of the men, by a German submarine just after it left San Lorenzo.
The story of the hundred martyrs is deliberately comic. Vonnegut delights in placing the idea of heroism against the fact that these hundred men never actually did anything in the war—they had only just left when they were killed.
Themes
