Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The End of Cat's Cradle


As I was reading toward the end of the book, I was mainly focusing on how the story ties into its title, "Cat's Cradle" According to what I have read from the book I can tell that the book is definitely a very insightful book. In that case, the title is very unlikely to be something not insightful.

One thing I found weird about, was the fact that Bokonon survived after the invasion of Ice-Nine. The book did not leave any explanation for that, however, I hope it wasn't because he was the prophet, therefore, he had some super power.

Anyway, the book ended with the invasion of Ice-Nine and nearly everyone died. It was almost like the scenes from the movie, I Am Legend, by Will Smith. Except that I Am Legend wasn't covered by ice.

Two of the very few survivors were Newt and Jonah. While they were driving in the middle of no life, Jonah spotted Bokonon sitting on a rock. Bokonon then told them that if he were a young man, he would write a book of the history of humans' stupidity, then commit suicide by Ice-Nine while thumbing his nose to the God.

I didn't understand what "thumbing nose" means. For some reason I thought it would be a clue to what the author, Kurt Vonnegut, hid. I'm assuming it is an act of teasing the God, though. The ending left me a bunch of question marks. Just like what a cat's cradle is; a bunch of messy lines. "No damn cat, and no damn cradle."

picture from: http://www.rmichelson.com/Artist_Pages/Kuch/Relationship.htm