Cat's Cradle

In Vonnegut’s alternate history, Dr. Hoenikker is the scientist primarily responsible for the development of the atomic bomb. As he is deceased by the time the novel opens, Dr. Hoenikker’s character emerges solely through the recollections of others.

Curious and playful, Dr. Hoenikker is almost completely detached from emotional aspects of human experience, leaving his wife and children feeling neglected, if still in awe of his ability. He is particularly distant from metaphysical or spiritual concepts, such as God and sin. His character thus represents a certain type of scientific pursuit that prioritizes new knowledge above all else.

Bokonon is a religious leader who exerts a tremendous influence over John and all the inhabitants of San Lorenzo. Born Lionel Boyd Johnson in Tobago, young Bokonon wanders the world looking for his destiny until he washes up on the shores of San Lorenzo, where he adopts his mature identity as a religious sage. Unlike most religious leaders to which he could be compared, Bokonon never claims his teachings are true; in fact, the opposite is true.

Bokonon thus embodies the contradictions and challenges of religious faith as well as the benefits, including a contented sense that God is directing events. Though the lives of Bokonon’s followers don’t substantially improve, they are happier because of the perspective he provides. As the novel’s primary exponent of religious thought, Bokonon is a foil character to Dr. Hoenikker, who embodies scientific thought.

Newt is the youngest of the Hoenikker children. When John corresponds with Newt by letter, he finds him to be a frank, nuanced writer and a critical thinker, willing to critique his father, whom he dislikes. By his own admission, Newt is a poor medical student, but he develops into a passionate painter, who introduces John to the significance of the cat’s cradle. As a little person, Newt is sometimes unjustly maligned by others, but he refuses to become offended.

By the end of the novel, Newt, like John, trends toward Bokononism, as when John considers Newt’s comment that “maybe you can find some neat way to die” to be “a Bokononist thing to say” (285). After the collapse of civilization, Newt carries on painting, demonstrating the continued relevance of art.

As the oldest Hoenikker child, Angela takes on additional responsibilities following the death of her mother. Though she drops out of school, she continues to play clarinet, which is her preferred outlet for negative emotions. Loyal to a fault, she consistently reveres Dr. Hoenikker and his work. Judged by John to be physically unattractive, Angela marries a husband who turns out to be more interested in ice-nine than in her. Angela thus demonstrates the danger of assuming benevolence in others who are motivated by personal gain or scientific curiosity.

Of the three Hoenikker children, Frank, the second, is most like Dr. Hoenikker, preferring to distance himself from people while he works on his chosen projects. For Frank, those projects include models and, after ice-nine decimates civilization, an ant colony. Though Frank insists at the end of the novel that he has “grown up a great deal” (281), John is skeptical, fearing that, as Bokonon warns of certain people, Frank is “no wiser than before” calamity struck (281). Frank thus demonstrates the risk of repeating the same types of errors despite the warnings of experience and history.

The Breeds are a family that lives in Ilium, New York. Dr. Asa Breed was Dr. Hoenikker’s supervisor at General Forge and Foundry, where he oversaw projects that contributed to military projects, including the atomic bomb. If, as a scientist, Dr. Breed lacks Dr. Hoenikker’s genius, he makes up for it with increased social and rhetorical intelligence. Indeed, he shows significant concern for the public-relations implications of John’s research into Dr. Hoenikker and even warns Angela not to talk to him. Dr. Breed is also more adept personally and romantically, and he carries on an affair with Emily Hoenikker. If, as rumor suggests, he is the father of some or all of the Hoenikker children, his last name serves as a pun.

Not all the Breed family members feel the same way. Dr. Breed’s son quits his job at General Forge and Foundry after the atomic bomb is dropped on Japan. Dr. Breed’s brother Marvin works as a stone cutter at the local cemetery and harbors resentments toward Dr. Breed and his work.

Julian and Philip Castle are a father and a son who both end up in San Lorenzo. A selfish and indulgent sugar millionaire until he reaches 40 years old, Julian turns his life around and devotes himself to caring for the needy in his House of Hope and Mercy in the Jungle. Julian works to undo some of the damage he and his family caused earlier, an example of reparations. Julian’s son Philip, meanwhile, grows up in San Lorenzo and is even tutored by Bokonon. He falls in love with Mona, but his hope of marrying her is denied when Papa Monzano arranges for her to marry the next president of San Lorenzo.

To combat his loneliness, and with little interest in taking over his father’s hospital, Philip opens a hotel, which he names after Mona and creates a mural of her inside. Taken together, the Castles demonstrate the ambiguity and complexity of building a life in San Lorenzo, particularly over time and within generational contexts; one works to right wrongs committed in the past, while the other pines for yesterday’s lost dreams.

H. Lowe and Hazel Crosby are an American couple who visit San Lorenzo with the intent of opening a bike factory. Both characters demonstrate provincial views in their overwhelming pride and fondness for the United States and Indiana in particular. Although John finds Lowe’s views on labor reprehensible, he admits that many of his observations about human laziness are “not only funny but true” (92). Overall, the Crosbys embody the influence and effects of American industrialization as they apply to San Lorenzo.

Claire and Horlick Minton travel to San Lorenzo after Horlick is appointed as the American ambassador to the country. Ironically, despite his status as an American political official, Horlick is much less traditionally patriotic than the Crosbys, who serve as foil characters to the Mintons. The Mintons adopt a more cosmopolitan outlook and show little concern for the typical markers of status on which John attempts to compliment them. The Mintons thus offer a critical perspective on the unbridled nationalism of the Crosbys. 

Born and raised in San Lorenzo, Miguel Monzano, or “Papa” as he’s known, rose to power after serving as Earl McCabe’s major-domo. Technically a military dictator, Papa Monzano carries on the charade started by his predecessor of outlawing Bokononism to increase the religion’s allure. On several occasions, Papa Monzano expresses his confidence in science, and presumably this was the motivation behind his decision to unleash ice-nine on the world at the time of his death, though his exact thought process at the time is left ambiguous. His character thus demonstrates the risks of placing advanced technologies in the hands of erratic but powerful people, an example of the theme of The Risks and Limitations of Scientific Inquiry.