An Analysis Of Black Humor In Cat’s Cradle

The postmodern American writer Kurt Vonnegut creates a number of works in half acentury of his creative career and he is on par with Mark Twain. His masterpiece Cat’sCradle seizes the mood of his living times and stimulates the imagination of a generation.Peter. J. Reed called Cat’s Cradle Vonnegut’s first truly post-modern novel. The views onVonnegut’s works differ greatly and he uses the writing techniques of postmodernismsuch as irony and parody to create weird and absurd figures and describes the world ofchaos and disorder. He is always concerned with the development of human civilization.However, there is still hope and order in his nothingness. He is always worried about theprospects of the development of human civilization. He is not only a changing, elusivepostmodern black humorist but also a realist who pays more attention to the public life.The thesis will analyze his work from three aspects, namely, its theme, alienationand parody. His work comprehensively reflects the anti-war theme with modern writingtechniques. The present thesis interprets Cat’s Cradle from the perspective of blackhumor. Through a great deal of research and demonstration, the thesis attempts to startwith the theme, image and writing techniques, trying to study and analyze the anti-wartheme, the image of cat’s cradle and the writing techniques such as parody and irony. Thethesis aims to express his warning of people in modern times. Cat’s Cradle is anapocalypse of the living condition of people in modern times. The tragic scene of a smallcountry in South America shows clearly that only by establishing a truly harmoniousfamily can the final tragedy be avoided.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which mainly makes a brief summary of the researcheson Cat’s Cradle at home and abroad, and then points out the great significance andunique point of view of the analysis on the play.The body of the thesis is composed of four chapters:Chapter One makes an analysis of the relationship between Vonnegut’s lifeexperience and his writing career, including his early family life, the experience of World War II, the post-war work experience and the background of the Cold War. This chapterwill also describe the definition and development of black humor, the background andcharacteristics, as well as black humor in Cat’s Cradle.The second chapter focuses on black humor reflected in the theme of Cat’s Cradle,including technological alienation and the alienation of human nature, powerful politicsand the mental control of religion. The technological alienation embodied in the atomicbomb and the ice-nine can lead to the extinction of human being. The alienation ofhuman nature is mainly reflected in the family of Dr. Hennikers. Dr. Henniker is knownas the “father of the atomic bomb”, a cold and crazy physicist, he is only interested in thisgame of cat’s cradle and man is not within his scope. He is indifferent to his threechildren and his strange children divide his ice-nine after his death in exchange for theso-called status and well-being. Finally, ice-nine makes the world end.The third chapter is an analysis of the image of Cat’s Cradle. The image of cat’scradle may seem simple, but it has many changes. In fact, there is no cat or cradle. Theauthor wants to imply the emptiness of the world so as to reveal the absurdity of theworld. Cat’s Cradle, crystal ice-nine as well as the religion Bokonon created by the authorare the same in essence. Cat’s Cradle is a showcase of postmodern condition. The workdisplays the deep despair in the world. The only way to avoid the final fate is to establisha truly harmonious family.The fourth chapter mainly discusses the writing techniques of black humor, such asparody, irony and metafiction. Cat’s Cradle is a parody of the traditional religion. Cat’sCradle plays an important role in many works of Vonnegut and the author also sets uphumorous terms with a deep meaning according to the fictional Bokonon created by him.The conclusion indicates that Vonnegut wonderfully uses the skills of black humorin light of his strong sense of social and historical responsibility. There is a lot of chaosand helplessness in the dark world and there is no order and reason and everything isaccidental and absurd, but Vonnegut work t has its own order–the order in nothingness.Cat’s Cradle is a showcase of postmodern social condition.