Essay on Anti-War Sentiments in Cats Cradle and...

On the surface, Kurt Vonneguts Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five are vastly dissimilar works of literature, each with its own creative style and plot. However, when the texts are examined with a discerning eye one can notice multiple thematic undercurrents such as war fate,time and suffering hidden in plain sight. Overwhelmingly common in Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five are strong anti-war sentiments which show all the ways war is deleterious towards the human condition.(Marvin) Vonnegut shows how war only causes pointless suffering and destroys the human body through countless ironic deaths, including Edgar Derbys, who is shot for stealing a teapot shortly after hundreds of thousands are massacred in the Dresden fire bombings.†¦show more content†¦Another malignant effect of war is its toll on the human conscience; in Cats Cradle the owners of research institutions and the American government turn harmless scientific discoveries into weapons. Vonnegut points out that science preformed to advance academia and satisfy curiosity is all to often used for evil.(Mustazza) This point is driven home when we are introduced to the introverted Felix Hoenniker, who invented the atomic bomb and ice nine. The use of ice nine as a doomsday device in the story provides a view into Vonnegut himself, both his encompassing pessimism and loathing of war. Without a doubt, Vonnegut connects both the atomic bomb and ice nine by giving them the same fictional inventor and similar consequences of abuse. Furthrmore, by terminating the fictional world in Cats Cradle with ice nine, Vonnegut points out how its real-world allegory, the atomic bomb, may have the same result. According to critics both Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five are anti-war books, but one is left to wonder why Vonnegut hates war so much. His view on lifes purpose provides a pretty clear answer for this question. He thinks that since life means nothing, people fight wars to accomplish nothing. The goal of war is to cause death and human suffering to accomplish end, but since that end means nothing, war is just cyclical violence. (Klinkowitz) InShow MoreRelatedKurt Vonnegut Analysis825 Words   |  4 PagesDecidedly anti-war, Vonnegut refused to glorify his most hurtful memories of World War II. His writings took on a common thread of sharp wit and satire. Hilariously, he made fun of his world and attempted to teach a lesson regarding society’s quirks and highlight what he thought about society. Born November 11, 1922 and raised by wealthy Germans in Indianapolis, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr’s family abandoned their German culture to prove their patriotism in view of the anti-German sentiment after World