Kurt's Mockery

Cat’s Cradle is intertwined with irony and parody, but it is necessary to recognize the hidden suggestions of Vonnegut’s humor. Although Vonnegut clearly meant for his readers to laugh while reading his book, Cat’s Cradle is not only a playful story through human characteristics. Hidden in Vonnegut’s playful humor is a clear-headed explanation of the threat in the combination of human stupidity and lack of concern with humankind’s technological ability …

…None of this changed in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, many people in the twentieth century took the self-centered position that humanity has reached in it’s new peak of maturity. Science became a valued establishment of truth and knowledge, and few people seriously questioned whether the truth and knowledge of modern science was necessarily helpful. Cat’s Cradle mocks this hubris by stressing that pure human stupidity is alive and well in the twentieth century.