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
Frank brings Mona to the cave and leaves her alone with John. John admires her physical beauty, and greets her nervously. She says, “It is not possible to make a mistake,” which is a Bokononist greeting used when “meeting a shy person.” She says that John can have her, if he wants.
Mona is a strangely stoic figure who seems to embody the principles of Bokononism—despite the fact that it’s entirely made-up. The “courtship” between John and Mona is distinctly unerotic.
Themes
Mona initiates boko-maru with John, saying it will help him. John, from the present-day, tells the reader that he must have slept with “more than fifty-three women,” but nothing compared to boko-maru with Mona.
John’s decision to accept the presidency is thus entirely founded on his sexual excitement felt towards Mona.
Themes
