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 and John can’t get in right away to see “Papa”. His doctor, Dr. Koenigswald, tells them they need to wait half an hour. They wait in a room that was once a torture chamber, and Frank tells John that there is an oubliette installed in the floor.
An oubliette is a secret dungeon accessible only through a trapdoor. Along with the hook, it’s another western torture device that has found its way to San Lorenzo.
Themes
A Christian minister, Dr. Vox Humana, is on-hand to administer to “Papa” Monzano’s “spiritual needs.” On a table in front of him he has laid out “a brass dinner bell,” a bible, a hatbox containing a tranquilized chicken, and a butcher’s knife. Dr. Humana explains that “he had to feel his way along with Christianity, since Catholicism and Protestantism had been outlawed along with Bokonon.” Accordingly, he has to “make up a lot of new stuff.”
A vox humana is a part of an organ that supposedly contributes to a sound similar to the human voice. The minister’s collection of strange objects is meant to reflect on the forgotten strangeness of the objects important to real religions. Likewise, the threat of the chicken and the knife are suggestive of the violent potential of religious conflict.
Themes
