How Cat's Cradle is Postmodern

Cat's Cradle is a completely postmodern text. Vonnegut covered many postmodern subjects like religion and science.

I think the largest aspect of postmodern religion in Cat's Cradle is Bokononism. In the novel, Bokononism's creators, Bokonon and Earl McCabe, created the religion to control the island nation of San Lorenzo as a utopian project. In order to do this, the two had to recreate reality for the citizens. The religion was banned soon after by the next ruler of the island, Papa Monzano, to give its followers more reason to practice it. Bokonon was labeled an outlaw and is "pursued" by the San Lorenzan government for heresy. The religion of San Lorenzo is postmodern because it centers on the idea of objectivism. In objectivism, the only reality is what one has accepted to be the truth, even if it has been based on lies. Bokononism tells its followers to "'Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy'" (Bokonon, 5) For San Lorenzans, poverty will never improve, but it is by the manufacturing of reality that the government can create hope and maintain a productive nation.

The other postmodern subject in Cat's Cradle is the neutrality of science. Felix Hoenikker was the man responsible for developing the atomic bomb. It killed hundreds of thousands of people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. Hoenikker also created ice-nine, the doomsday compound in the novel. Vonnegut centers on a key concept of science by using Hoenikker's characterization. His character was socially awkward, and cared little for his family life. The only discernible thing he truly cared for was science. This did not include its motives; it was all a game to Hoenikker. Vonnegut shows through the innocent scientist that technological developments are fundamentally impartial. It is only by human motivation that it is labeled good or evil.