An ECO-critical Interpretation Of Cat’s Cradle

As a pioneer of postmodern American writers, “Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most important American writers”(Greene 117), as the British great writer Graham Greene says. As Kurt Vonnegut’s fourth novel Cat’s Cradle first published in 1963 has deeply described the mood of his living times, which “explores issues of science, technology, and religion, satirizing the arms race and many other targets along the way”(Reed 223) and is called Vonnegut’s first truly post-modern novel by Peter. J. Reed. He is a humorist who is always concerned with the development of human civilization and a realist who pays more attention to the public life. When remembering the bombing of Dresden, Vonnegut says like this: “Every great city is a world treasure, not a national treasure. So the destruction of any of them is a planetary catastrophe”(FWTD 30). Cat’s Cradle by humane Vonnegut in which such catastrophe is depicted profoundly with great care for human future is used to warn human beings. However, such profound novel, Cat’s Cradle, has captured as little as concern and attention at home and abroad.The thesis intends to analyze the text from three dimensions: nature, society and spirit by means of the theory of ecological criticism, and consists of three parts: an introduction, the main part and a conclusion. The introduction as the first part makes a survey of the research about Cat’s Cradle at home and abroad, and then explains the research motivation, research questions and the outline of this thesis. The second part is the main part which is divided into four chapters. Chapter one presents an overview about the development and conception of eco-criticism and gives an explanation about the theoretical feasibility to Cat’s Cradle; Chapter two expounds the destruction of human beings from the perspective of natural ecology. Human beings violates the natural laws, which brings the destruction of the whole world finally; Chapter three illustrates the troubled human relations from the perspective of social ecology, and contains indifference in kinship, the alienation in marital relationship and the estrangement in fellowship; Chapter four explores the paralysis of human psyche from the perspective of spiritual ecology, and includes the absence of identity, moral decline and spiritual vacuum. The third part is the conclusion through the analysis above. When human beings develop quickly the science and technology and improve social productivity, on one hand, human beings should pay more attention to following the natural laws, learn to use the advanced science and technology rationally created by human beings, building a harmonious relationship with nature, and eventually learn well to live in harmony with nature; on the other hand, human beings should attach great importance to the construction of social culture and spiritual civilization, lay emphasis on the the survival conditions of social individual, giving more affection and care each other, and then promote the harmonious development of society.