A Study Of The Collage In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle

Peter J. Reed reckons Cat’s Cradle as the first truly postmodern novel of Kurt Vonnegut. So far, the critical studies of Cat’s Cradle are mainly on its themes or genre as a science fiction. Based on collage, an indispensable postmodern writing technique, the present thesis attempts to probe into the truth and untruth collage, the collage of grand narrative and micro narrative, the fragment and unity collage in Cat’s Cradle.After tracing the origin, budding and blooming of collage, this thesis finds that the use of collage in Cat’s Cradle is salient. As for its form,Cat’s Cradle is strongly autobiographical. The deformed family bonding, the material and spiritual despondence in the post-war America, the rise of feminist movement are the living evidences of the author’s own life and the mire that the characters in Cat’s Cradle are stuck in. The truth and untruth collages make Cat’s Cradle a paradoxical combination of absurdity and rationality. As for its content,Vonnegut fabricates a non-existent religion,i. e. Bokonon,and the lethal weapon "ice-9", which allures his characters in Cat’s Cradle into doom. In Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut places doubts about the grand narrative which pins all hope on the propaganda that religion and science would help humanity walk out of the spiritual wilderness of the post-war America. Meanwhile, Cat’s Cradle uses micro narrative to record the spiritual growth of the narrator Jonah. Through refuting the grand narrative and highlighting micro narrative, Cat’s Cradle becomes more profound. Regarding the style,the economy of diction in Cat’s Cradle and the apparent inclination toward consumerism make it unified in the overall writing style while Vonnegut’s narration of writing zero and language game fragmentize the novel at the same time. The collage of fragment and unity vocalizes the logic behind the novel and makes it unpredictable and abstruse.Collage is one of the most important writing technique of Kurt Vonnegut, which makes Cat’s Cradle a postmodern masterpiece and the author Kurt Vonnegut a herald of postmodern writers.