The Cruel Joke of Life Exposed in Vonneguts Cats Cradle :: Vonnegut Cats Cradle Essays

The Cruel john of Life Exposed in Vonneguts Cats provenanceCats Cradle is set up like a serial of comic strips, with satirical commentary found in the travel plank. What, then, could we conclude is the accumulative punchline for the entire novel? What does Vonnegut give us for his last laugh? If we attempt to answer this question, we must first try lick the answers to what is the joke? and who is the joker? It seems Vonneguts characters are the victims to the cruel joke of life. In Cats Cradle he suggests that God is the joker. Like any good comedian, he must consider his timing and his audience. By using human beings that are unendingly trying to understand it all in a scientific age, it becomes the sodding(a) set-up. His method of delivering the joke seems to be either through Religion or Science. In the novel, the more the characters try to find the meaning of life, the funnier and more crocked the joke becomes. And no one is laughing harder than Bokonon. Julian Castle q uotes this poem from The Books of Bokonon after Jonah shrieks, My God-life Who can understand even one delicate of it?tiger got to hunt,Bird got to flyMan got to sit and wonder, Why, why, why?Tiger got to sleep,Bird got to landMan got to tell himself he understand (150).Bokononism is a witty, satirical retort to the methods that God uses to play his joke. Bokonon and his followers understand the joke and even play along. When the final punchline is about to be delivered (when the ice order is released), the Bokononists, who seem to have always anticipated an end to this prank called life, willingly eat the ice nine and kill themselves.