Study Guide to Chapters 36-65 of Cat's Cradle

42.1(92):  Can you interpret the couplet Bokonon invites us to sing along with him?

43.1(92-3):  How does H. Lowe Crosby’s “approach to what people were really supposed to do with their time on Earth” connect with his opinion of the hook?

44.1(96-97), 45.1(98-99):  What are we to make of the titles Vonnegut affixes to these two chapters?  What might be his point in designing this history for the Mintons?

The first step in getting a handle on a question like this is to be on the lookout for situations and scenes elsewhere in the novel that might strike a resonance with this history. 

The theme of “pessimism” is one.  Where have we already seen this?  What other ideas connect up with it, in turn?

But don’t stop with this.  What are some other issues raised by the experiences the Mintons report here (and by Crosby’s reaction to them)?  (How, by the way, does this reaction on Crosby’s part tie up with the rest of our conception of his character?)

47.1(title):  Be on the lookout for how the ideas developed in this chapter (“Dynamic Tension”) get developed later in the novel.

47.2(last paragraph: 109):  The legend mentioned here is described as “made up” by Bokonon.  So we shouldn’t expect anything to come of it, in the future — or should we?

By now you will be on to the fact that the idea of “the end of the world” is functioning as a motif in the story.  If you haven’t been keeping track of this (with, say, a note like “OdtW” in the margin), you might look back and do this now.

Here are some helps:  1(1), 5(9), 12(26), 22(50).  Be on the lookout for possible future instances.

48.1(104):  Re:  Saint Augustine’s youth.  In his Confessions (397), Augustine of Hippo (354-430) relates the history of his dissolute youth, his study of pagan philosophy, his passage through the Persian teachings of Manichaeism, up through his conversion to Christianity.

Augustine subsequently played a key role in the establishment of orthodoxy within Christianity.  In his City of God (413-426), for example, he lays out a comprehensive picture of history according to the fundamental principles of Christian theology according to his understanding of them.  These are, principally:  (1) the utter depravity of human nature since the fall of the original parents in the Garden of Eden (hence the slavery of the natural human will to sin), (2) the complete dependence of personal regeneration, and thus salvation, upon the issuance of divine grace (hence, predestination, since God knows and wills from eternity to whom he will grant, and from whom he will withhold, his grace), and (3) the perseverance of the saints (the idea that once saved by the action God’s grace, a person is unable to bring about his own damnation). 

• In invoking the name of Augustine, Bokonon invites his readers to consider not only the parallels between their careers, but the parallels and divergences between their religious doctrines. 

• We should notice, then, that Vonnegut contrives here to nudge his readers — us — to bring to bear this curiosity from here on in the novel.

49.1(107):  Bokonon’s account of his arrival on San Lorenzo may strike an echo with something we remember from the opening chapter.

49.2(107):  “It was a rebirth for him.” 

• How many other instances come to mind in which the idea of “rebirth” shows up within a religious context (i.e., outside, beyond the story we are reading)?
• Do we see it show up additionally within the novel itself?  (Does it even apply to more than one instant or phase in the life of Bokonon himself?)

49.3(108):  Are there several ways (not just one) in which one might “stay like a baby” all the rest of one’s days?

• Are some of them better, some worse, than others?
• Do we see different sorts of these in the case of different individuals we encounter in the course of the novel?

51.1(112):  Angela tells the narrator, “Dr. Breed told me I wasn’t supposed to co-operate with you.  He said you weren’t interested in giving a fair picture of Father.”

• What would a full account of Dr. Breed’s motives here include?
• What, in your opinion, would be a fair picture of Angela’s father?

The narrator says he “placated her some by telling her that the book would probably never be done anyway, that I no longer had a clear idea of what it would or should mean.

• Do we figure the narrator is probably telling the truth here?  (What evidence since the beginning of the novel might you point to in support of your conclusion?)
• If he is, what question that we saw the book raise back in Chapter 1 is now getting at least a partial answer?  (How so?)

Angela replies, “Well, if you ever do do the book, you better make Father a saint, because that’s what he was.”

• In what sense or senses might it make sense to say that Felix Hoenikker was “a saint”?
• In what sense or senses of the term would you be inclined to deny that he qualifies as “a saint”?

Other parts of this Study Guide to Cat's Cradle

  SG to Chapters 1-35

  SG to Chapters 66-96

  Sg to Chapters 97-127

  SG:  Bokonisms:  a list of first occurrences.

  Suggestions are welcome.  Please send your comments to lyman@ksu.edu .

   Contents copyright © 2002 by Lyman A. Baker. 

Permission is granted for non-commercial educational use; all other rights reserved.

  This page last updated 27 February 2003 .