Themes

In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut brought together themes from his first three novels: the threat of technology from Player Piano, the question of free will from The Sirens of Titan, and the problem of communication from Mother Night.

The overriding theme of Cat's Cradle is the narrator's warning that if technological advancement continues without a concurrent growth in ethical aware ness, annihilation of the human race is a real possibility. This, of course, parallels the biblical story of Jonah who so vividly prophesies the destruction of Nineveh that the city repents and is spared by God. As in other books, Vonnegut shows that intellect harbors the temptation to rule over life, death, and nature, and he hopes that his novel will have the cautionary effect of Jonah's prophecy.

The confrontation between technology and morality is represented in the book by the two primary settings: Ilium, New York is the...