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
At dinner, Julian explains that “Papa” has cancer of just “about everything.” Newt says he would kill himself in that situation; Julian replies that that’s what Corporal McCabe did, but reasons that he was worn down by “unrelieved villainy” rather than cancer.
Julian implies that McCabe’s constant need to perform his “villainy” eventually caused him to kill himself.
Themes
John asks who is “Papa” Monzano’s doctor; Julian explains that it is Dr. Schlichter von Koenigswald. Dr. Koenigswald was a physician at Auschwitz for the Nazis. He now works at Julian’s hospital. If Dr. Koenigswald keeps saving lives at his current rate, says Julian, he will “equal the number of people he let die – in the year 3010.” John, from the present-day, says Dr. Koenigswald is another member of his karass.
