Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Cat's Cradle, is a lesson in human nature that is based around the story of its narrator, John. In the book, John is trying to research Felix Hoenikker, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. As it happens, Hoenikker was playing "cat's cradle" the day the U.S. dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Vonnegut makes several references to this children's game. Vonnegut's novel is basically a message of human stupidity and one's stretch for something that's not there. The book almost seems to have no point, and the characters search for an impossible end. By choosing the title Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut sarcastically shows his central theme of human misconceptions and stupidity.

As Vonnegut introduces cat's cradle in the text, the reader is able to understand the relationship of the title to the rest of the novel. Felix Hoenikker, "father of the atomic bomb", was...