Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

An event I chose from Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut was from chapter six. The event I chose in the book was the day that the atomic bomb was going to hit Japan and Newt, the son of a scientist,writes a letter to

John. There was a scence when Newt was sitting outside of his fathers work office on the carpet playing with his toy trucks. His father was one of the people who were involved in making the atomic bomb. While Newt was playing outside, his father came out with a string he got from a manuscript and tried to play with John. John’s father rarely even spoke to him or played any games so Newtwas surprised. “He had hardly ever even spoken to me”(Vonnegut12). He made the string into a shape of the cats cradle and waved it in front of johns face. “See?see?see? Cats cradle. See the cats cradle? See where the nice pussycat sleeps? Meow meow”(Vonnegut12). Newt was not very interested in it and it seemed he was more interested in how his father looked like up close.” His pores looks as big as the craters on the moon. His ears and nostrils were stuffed with hair. Cigar smoke made him smell like mouth of hell. So close up, my father was the ugliest thing I have ever seen.”(Vonnegut12). When his father started to sing, John started to cry and ran away from his father. I found this funny and it kind of persuades me to go on and read more.

This scene I chose from the book develops humor and rejection as a theme. I chose humor as a theme because Newts reaction toward his father after he tried to play with Newt made me laugh. “I burst into tears. I jumped up and ran out of the house as fast as I could go”(Vonnegut12). It seemed that he got frighten by his father’s looks. I did feel bad for the father because he was really hurt by John’s reaction. “My sister Angela has told me many times that I really hurt my father that day when I wouldn’t admire the cat’s cradle, when I wouldn’t stay there on the carpet with my father and listen to him sing”(Vonnegut13).and that’s when rejection comes in. When Newt ran away crying from his father scared, the father was basically rejected by his son. It seemed like Newt didn’t want to play with him because he was frighten by how ugly his father looked . I also find this pretty weird because Newt realizes how his father looked when he saw him up close. I think this scenes purpose was to catch the readers’ attention and it worked. It interested me and I read on longer.

How he thought of his father and especially his reaction towards it. I think it gives the readers a laugh. Rejection is also important in this scene because no one wants to be rejected by their children and Newts father felt rejected when Newt ran away crying from him. Overall, humor and rejection are what sets a theme in this scene. Newts reaction toward his father was funny, and Newt running away from his father gave off this rejected feeling. I picked this scene because I was getting bored and it caught my attention to read on.