Cats Cradle Literary Analysis

“Nothing in this book is true.”   In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, science and religion compete throughout the book in order to become the overall belief in society by finding salvation in lies, danger in technological advancements, and through the comparison of the two as they compete with each other. Vonnegut does this in order to express his views on society.

“If you want to find a granfalloon, remove the skin from a toy balloon.” (95) Within parts of society, there is reliance on religion. People are looking to find answers and hope to help them keep striving and their answer comes through a faith. Kurt Vonnegut displays within his book Cat’s Cradle that religion is a dependent part of some peoples lives but is ultimately lies. Through the first quote he is explaining that if the skin of a toy balloon is peeled away, nothing is left behind, as he is comparing to what happens when you try to find the depth within religion. As shown in the novel, the religion of Bokonon uses salvation in lies in order to prove that society will find hope in the things that make them feel better . Basically, it is there to tell people exactly what they want to hear and overall is more convincingly useful to a person. In the perspective of the book, religion is based on harmless untruths which is the opposite of science’s main purpose. “She hated people who thought too much. At the moment, she struck me as an appropriate representative for almost all mankind.” (33) This is an example of how there is a created separate society which is religion. The fact the she is scared of people who thought too much is the greatest representation of why people turn to religion. Experiencing that there is comfort to be seeked by simply following a belief system intrigues a vast amount of people. Which ultimately is giving yourself satisfaction instead of embracing the plain truth and the consequences it brings. “It was the belief of Bokonon that good societies could be built only by pitting...