A Studt Of Polyphony In Cat’s Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most influential novelists in the late20th Century.He was regarded as a representative of "black humor". Many of his novels are familiarto Chinese readers, such as Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast ofChampions. His novel Cat’s Cradle was published in1963, which pointed to thepotentially disastrous consequences of the development of science for science’s sake.Cat’s Cradle is the most acclaimed novel for Kurt Vonnegut. There are manystrange and memorable characters behind the humor and absurd story. Kurt Vonnegutlet the readers understand that how terrible a disaster is when human’s stupidity andtheir indifference are mixed with their technical ability together. This thesis attempts tothrow a new light on the understanding of Cat’s Cradle by exploring it as a polyphonicnovel.This thesis consists of four chapters, along with the introduction and conclusion.The introduction mainly presents the profile of the writer and the critical response toCat’s Cradle and its literature review, which is followed by the proposition of the gistand structure of this thesis.The first chapter discusses the Bakhtin’s polyphonic theory which includes thegreat dialogue, micro-dialogue, and intertextual dialogue.The second chapter analyzes the great dialogue in Cat’s Cradle. It is composed ofthree parts, which analyze in great details the dialogue between the author and thenarrators, among the stories, and between the author and the readers respectively. Thework as a whole is a great dialogue.The third chapter analyzes the micro-dialogue in Cat’s Cradle. It is made of fourparts that discuss respectively the micro-dialogue. The narrator Jonah is both a wiseobserver and a fallen soul driven by his desire for beauty and power. Dr.Felix Hall Nickis as innocent as a child, yet evil enough to know nothing about sin and morality.Bokonon plays the role of religious saint to comfort people on one hand, and conspiresto fool and kill them on the other hand. Dr. Hall Nick’s three kids are all physically ormentally deformed persons in a way, but they are also in pursuit of art, music andscience. This chapter mainly discusses the polyphony of characters by its own in the novel, and then profoundly reveals the complexity and the richness of human nature, soas to reveal the polyphonic soul distracting, struggling and suffering, presented themultiple dimensions of human existence.The fourth chapter explores the intertextual dialogue in Cat’s Cradle. It consists ofthree parts which discusses respectively the prototype of the war, parodic tone of theChristianity and parodying the story of The Pilgrim’s Process.Cat’s Cradle is a polyphonic novel full of multiple dialogues and voices, whichproduces an effect of "heteroglossia" and endows the novel with strong resilience andtension.