Kurt Vonnegut's Cats Cradle Use of Satire
Cat's Cradle: Religion and Satire What is religion? There is no one correct answer, however, one definition that seems to cover every aspect of most established religions is, "
the most comprehensive and intensive manner of valuing known to human beings" (Pecorino). In Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut takes this definition and creates his own religion in order to satirize all others. Bokononism, Vonnegut's contrived religion, is built on foma, or harmless untruths. Bokononists believe that good societies can only be built by keeping a high tension between good and evil at all times, and that there is no such thing as absolute evil (Schatt 64). They have created their own language with words such as karass, a group of people organized by God to do his work for him (Vonnegut 2), and granfalloon, a false karass (91). Kurt Vonnegut uses the Bokononist's religious scripture, The Books of Bokonon, to satirize all other holy scriptures. He also uses a Bokononist ritual, boko-maru, to mock other spiritual rituals and ceremonies. Finally, Vonnegut uses the apocalyptic ending of Cat's Cradle to scoff at many religions' beliefs in what will happen when the world ends. In Kurt Vonnegut's science fiction novel Cat's Cradle, the author uses satire to target religious themes. The Books of Bokonon are the religious texts of Bokononism. They were originally created by two men, Lionel B. Johnson and Earl McCabe. The two men wash up on the shore of San Lorenzo, a small, corrupt, poverty-stricken island. The people, desperate for money and happiness, let the two men rule their island. However, as McCabe becomes a tyrant, the townspeople start to consider rebellion. In order to quell the people's anger, Johnson creates the religion Bokononism and writes The Books of Bokonon. In order for the religion to gain popularity, McCabe bans the religion and makes Johnson an outlaw. The idea works and the religion spreads to almost every resident of San Lorenzo. The
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