Cat's Cradle

The novel, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, has two main focuses; science and religion. The beginning of the novel takes place in a town called Ilium, which is the hometown of the famous scientist, Dr. Hoenikker. Dr. Hoenikker is best known for his contribution to the atom bomb and his creation of ice-nine. Both discoveries, however admired, provide lethal and dyer consequences to society.
Furthermore, the setting later takes place on the island of San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo has a thick religious atmosphere. The natives are said to be very pious Christians, yet the lie is uncovered and it is found that they are all Bokonists. Each native lies about their religion and rub feet together while backs are turned to express their religion. Yet, religion like science, can be lethal to society as well.

"The mountebank told them that God was surely trying to kill them, possible because He was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die. This, as you can see, they did" (182).
Religion is dangerously powerful, to the extent the natives will follow any guidance. Bokono, the father of the Bokonist religion and the God like figure in society, had a whole island of followers. The religion was based upon lies. When the ice-nine devastated the Earth, the islanders looked to Bokono for guidance. Bokono lied and spoke for God when he stated that "He was through with them" and was trying to kill them. Bokono told the natives to kill themselves. Since the natives were so faithful to their religion, they committed suicide by glazing their lips with ice-nine with out resistance. Religion is is tremendously powerful, enough to eliminate followers in order to be faithful.

I enjoyed reading this novel. It definitely kept my interest, and was perfect in it's amount of detail. The explanation of everything was very well explained and easy to follow. I liked how Kurt Vonnegut combined science with religion and by mixing them together, they destroyed society. I also enjoyed how he created something so simple to eliminate the entire world. Ice-nine is so powerful for it's size. Ultimately, the elimination of the human race through science and religion just won me over for that book. It was so creative and just brilliant how it all came together and caused the most lethal of all destruction.