The Alienation In Cat's Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut is acknowledged as a major voice in postmodern American literature.In his literary career of fifty years,he has written fourteen novels and a large number of short stories and essays and dramas. The studies at home and abroad on Vonnegut's works are not so thorough as those on his contemporary Donald Barthelme's or Thomas Pynchon's and the existing research is mainly contributed to Slaughterhouse-Five. Cat's Cradle,his fourth novel,was published in 1963,which embodies the theme of Vonnegut's vision of alienation frequently touched but not systematically studied home and abroad.This thesis studies the novel's theme—alienation in order to offer a new understanding of the novel. The thesis consists of three parts:the introduction,the body and the conclusion.The introduction is a survey of the past studies of Vonnegut's works,especially Cat's Cradle,followed by a simple explanation of understanding of alienation.Then it gives a brief account of the content of the thesis.The body is made up of four chapters.Chapter One probes into the principle shaping forces of Vonnegut's vision of alienation:his early family life,his war experience in Dresden during World War Two and his work experience in General Electricity and the Cold War between the USA and the USSR in 1960s.More emphasis will be put on the relationship between his life experience and social background with his writing.Meanwhile,the thesis gives a brief introduction to his main works and the main plot of Cat's Cradle.Chapter Two first makes the explanation of technology alienation clear,and then probes into the technology alienation from the following two aspects:the atomic bomb as a destructive weapon and ice-nine as apocalyptic weapon.Chapter Three analyzes the human alienation in Cat's Cradle.The human alienation is shown mainly in the Dr.Hoenikker's family:Dr.Hoenikker,the father of atomic bomb,is an indifferent and mad physicist,who has no moral and in order to help the military,invents ice-nine and as a result in the end of the novel destroys the whole world;Dr.Hoenikker's three children are grotesque and indifferent:after Dr.Hoenikker dies,the three children divide the ice-nine and each of them takes advantage of it to obtain their position and so-called happiness,thus the human destruction happens. The human alienation is also revealed in other minor characters:the girls in Girl Pool,and the Mintons escaping from America.Chapter Four explores the theme of alienation reflected in the art forms:repetition, collage,parody and black humor.As one of the representatives of postmodern novelists,Kurt Vonnegut uses these skills easily to reveal his theme.The concluding part is to restate the alienation in Cat's Cradle and welcome more study on Vonnegut's works.