Personal Journal Response - Cat's Cradle

ISU - Personal Journal Response

In the novel Cat's Cradle, society is a key concept. Society is a key concept because it is wrote through the eyes of a man who lives in a modern day society that is discovering new religions. There are things to be learned about this. It doesn't reveal what day in age it is but I presume it is rather modern. Jonah the main character in the book lives in a modern day society but sees life in the olden days when he decides to write a book about the day the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He views life through the eyes of the children of the so called father of the atomic bomb.

Another literary concept in this book would be flashback because when Jonah met up with Asa Breed he spoke of when Felix Hoenikker was alive. He talked about how he created a substance called ice nine, if ice nine got into the water it could freeze the world. Now Felix Hoenikker's children all have a piece of ice nine. Also at the beginning of the novel, Jonah had flashbacks back to 1945 to the life of Felix Hoenikker because he wants to write a book about the creators of the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. He got the story of Felix's life through the eyes of his son and by the looks of it he is a rather distracted man.

Narrative Hook is a third literary concept for this novel. The author began to write about ice nine I was instantly hooked. I wanted to keep reading so I could figure out if this ice nine is involved in the book. The author had hooked me in as soon as I read it. Jonah is learning about one of the fathers of the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and he is learning key facts about it and I found I wanted to read more because I wanted to find out what happened. Felix Hoenikker and his children seem to have lived a very interesting life.

I think that this book may foreshadow what will happen in the future because it talks about the ice nine in the beginning of the book. I believe that this ice nine will have something to do with this book. I think this because Jonah asks many questions about ice nine and angers Asa Breed. Asa Breed kicks him out of the Research Laboratory and will not let him interview him anymore for him book. Jonah is very curious about this ice nine and believes that this may be the wampeter of his karass. The wampeter is something that pretty much unites the karass and brings them together.

This may be way out into the blue but because I'm not too far into this book I believe symbolism may be a concept in this novel. I think this because the ice nine can freeze the whole world and the world frozen could stand for how a lot of people in this world are cold hearted and don't care about human life. I think this because Jonah is writing a book about what important Americans did on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I think that the ice nine maybe a symbol of all the people