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

The Cruel joke of Life Exposed in Vonneguts Cats CradleCats Cradle is set up like a serial publication of comic strips, with satirical commentary found in the last panel. What, then, could we conclude is the accumulative punchline for the entire novel? What does Vonnegut give us for his last jape? If we attempt to answer this question, we must first try solving 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 idol is the joker. Like any good comedian, he must consider his timing and his audience. By using human beings that are always trying to examine it wholly in a scientific age, it becomes the perfect 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 muster up the meaning of life, the funnier and more absurd the joke becomes. And no one is laughing harder than Bokonon. Julian Castle quotes this poem from The Books of Bokonon after Jonah shrieks, My God-life Who can understand eve one minute 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 society 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.