Internally, Hamlet’s entire world has been shaken. He begins with mourning for his father, and feeling hatred towards his aunt-mother and uncle-father. He feels as though his father has been betrayed, and forgotten. He is in a constant state of anger or misery, and begins contemplating things such as life and death, and the meaning of life. He comes to believe that the reality of mankind is quite distasteful. He becomes possessed with the idea of revenge. We know that Hamlet is highly looked upon, and this must be because he was a kind and loving Prince. Therefore, the fact that Hamlet’s thoughts constantly return to murder is a great change. The thing to note is that there is still much honor and good in the reason behind his revenge. He believes that he must make things right and avenge his father’s death, a great man who was terribly wronged. He wants to restore the justice that has been broken. Although we only hear from others how great he was before, through comparison, we can come to the conclusion that he has suffered quite a large internal transformation, which is very convincing.

His external transformation has posed the question as to whether or not he has lost his mind. To me, it is obvious that he was putting on a show, in one way or another, not only to confuse people, but also because he no longer really respected them and thought nothing of making a fool out of himself, or others around him. His appearance changes in the sense that he almost always wears dark clothing and he often looks sad or crazed with incredible passion in his eyes. As far as his speech goes, it seems like it is constantly a play on words. To others, it is quite scrambled, although there is still meaning within it. He is mostly sarcastic, rude, and mocking when speaking to others, but also goes on tangents, giving passionate speeches. His emotions seem to jump up and down. His actions are also quite strange. At times, they turn to anger. He does “suicidal” acts, such as bravely meeting his father’s ghost. He crazily visits Ophelia when she is in her bedchamber at night and slowly walks away. Mostly, it seems as though his actions are completely unexpected and spontaneous. All in all, whether or not you believe that he is putting on a show, his exterior transformation is very successful and convincing.

Hamlet’s transformation is accepted differently by the people around him. Claudius and Gertrude both believe that Hamlet is crazy, although specifically Claudius questions it at times due to the fact that Hamlet’s words do have sense to them, even though they might be scrambled. Either way, he believes Hamlet to be a threat, and dangerous, and decides to send him away and try to have him killed. This proves that Claudius is convinced that Hamlet has transformed, and that it is for the worst. Gertrude on the other hand is tempted at times to believe that he is not mad, specifically when he tries to tell her the truth behind his father’s death, but is then quickly convinced of the opposite due to Hamlet’s actions, such as talking to a person who she cannot see. She is heartbroken and hurt by her son’s actions. Ophelia believes that he has gone mad from grief as well as heart break. She somewhat blames herself, and is heart broken to see that the man she once loved has been degraded to such a degree. Horatio, knowing the truth, does not believe that Hamlet is mad and might have a better understanding of why he has transformed. It seems that Horatio is more sympathetic towards Hamlet’s state. You can also tell that he is at times a bit worried though, and does not quite understand why Hamlet does some of the things he does. Simply the fact that all of the people who are the closest to him are worried, believe him mad, and do not understand him, are good indications that his transformation is incredibly convincing and successful.

Thesis: Hamlet was truly in love with Ophelia.

Reason: Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is proven by his actions

Ex: He writes her a poem addressed as follows

 “To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia”. (Shakespeare, 105)

Ex: After not having seen Ophelia for quite some time, Hamlet seeks her in her bedchamber

 “He took me by the wrist and held me hard. Then goes he to the length of all his arm, And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face as he would draw it. Long stayed he so. At last, a little shaking of mine arm And thrice his head thus waving up and down, He raised a sigh so piteous and profound As it did seem to shatter all his bulk And end his being. That done, he lets me go, And, with his head over his shoulder turned, He seemed to find his way without his eyes, For out o’ doors he went without their helps, And to the last bended their light on me”. (Shakespeare, 100)

Reason: Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is proven by his words

Ex: When Ophelia and Hamlet meet in the hall Hamlet expresses the fact that he did love her

“I did love you once”. (Shakespeare, 126)

Ex: When Hamlet discovers that Ophelia is the body that is being put to the grave he strongly expresses his feelings.

“I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not with all their quantity of love Make up my sum.” (Shakespeare, 187)

Reason: Ophelia’s own opinion, as the receiver of this love

Ex: She tells her father in which fashion she as received Hamlets love

“My Lord, he hath importuned me with love In honorable fashion”. (Shakespeare, 84)

Ex: When Ophelia betrays Hamlet, she reflects upon what harm she has done him, which indicates that she believes him to be heartbroken.

“And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of his music vows Now see that noble and most sovereign reason Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy”. (Shakespeare, 127)

Although the play begins with Old Hamlet already having been murdered, it is obvious that before his father’s death Prince Hamlet lived a very comfortable and stable life. He had his mother, and his father whom he adored and admired greatly. We know that he was very close to Ophelia, that he went to university to study, and that he was very fond of drama. When his father get’s murdered, his entire reality begins to unravel. Firstly he is appalled by the fact that his mother re-married his uncle not even two months after his father’s death. This alone destroys everything that Hamlet used to live by. Claudius is nothing like his father, yet his mother is now willingly with him. He also accuses them of being incestuous. We can see that he is utterly shocked. Also, he does not understand why everyone has finished mourning so early, while his pain is greater than he can express. Then, when he finds out about the murder, things begin to unravel even further. He can now blame someone for destroying everything that was real to him – Claudius. He simply cannot cope with what has happened to him, he loses almost all sense of decency, and vows to have revenge against the man who ruined it all. He eventually becomes completely disenfranchised with man. He no longer pays attention to the woman he once loved, he kills Polonius, and gets sent away by the King… In the end, he is killed by a plan devised by Laertes and Claudius, not before getting his revenge.

Queen Gertrude:

In Queen Gertrude’s reality, what is important is a happy family. She doesn’t understand why her son would be grieving so greatly when he now has a new father to replace the one he just lost. Her family was in tatters for a bit and she made it better by re-marrying another man, making it “whole” again. She does not understand nor share Hamlet’s pain, and does not believe to have betrayed her deceased ex husband. This leads to her loosing any respect from her child, agreeing to have her son sent off to England where he could have been killed, and drinking from a poisoned drink which killed her.

King Claudius:

In King Claudius’s reality, he has killed his brother, taken his throne and his wife, and although he wishes to simply forget about the bad things and move on to being a good king and a good father/uncle to Hamlet, he cannot help but feel that Hamlet is a threat. In his reality, if he does not do something to stop or get rid of the Prince, something terribly wrong will happen. He attempts to have him killed in many ways, by plotting his death in England, by poisoning his drink, and by poisoning a blade. The outcome is that he ends up accidentally killing his wife, and dying at the hand of Hamlet – drinking his own poison. Ultimately, he is the main reason for most things that go wrong in the play.

Polonius:

In Polonius’s reality, all that matters is serving the royal family, and caring for his children (which I believe to still be of secondary importance to serving the throne). He does not want his daughter to be with Hamlet because he is a prince and needs to marry someone of better blood. He believes that the reason behind Hamlet’s madness is his having forbidden Ophelia to see him. His willingness to please the king leads to his aiding in breaking his daughter’s heart, and ultimately getting himself killed. He was so eager to help find out more about Hamlets madness that he was stabbed when spying upon him and Gertrude.

Laertes:

In Laertes’s reality, Hamlet is not to be trusted in the case of his sister. He does not believe that he truly loves her, and therefore tells her to be weary of him. When learning of his father’s death and poor burial, he immediately blames and plots to overthrow the king. When finding out that his father’s true killer is Hamlet, and that his beloved sister has gone crazy due to her father’s death, he plots to kill Hamlet in a battle that was supposed to only be false, with a poisoned blade. In the end, he dies at Hamlet’s hand the same way he killed Hamlet.

Ophelia:

In Ophelia’s reality, Hamlet truly does love her but she must obey her brother and father. She goes against her heart, agreeing not to see her lover and being used by her father and the king to find out what is wrong with Hamlet, betraying him as well. She ends up believing that Hamlet has gone mad. She loses the man she loves, and goes completely insane due to a failure to cope with her father’s death. This also leads to her own death; a possible suicide.

Fortinbras:

Although his father lost fairly to Old Hamlet, Fortinbras is not at all happy with this outcome and attempts to invade Denmark as a way to avenge his father’s death. He almost get’s in serious trouble with his uncle, the new King, and finally gets what he wants in the end –because all the heirs to the throne are dead in Denmark, he claims his right to the kingdom.

The Importance of a Family Unit in Society

Truly functioning family units are of vital importance to society. They provide a place of love, comfort, safety, and much more for a growing child, who will eventually be part of society and affect it in one way or another. Some may believe that most things are innate inside of us, but I believe that things are a product of nurture much more than nature. The type of family unit that you have will almost always affect the person you become when you’re older. The majority of the time, most of the things you learn come from your family. If you are used to abuse, violence, neglect, etc. than this may be the things you come to expect from those around you. If your family unit teaches you good morals and values, then you have higher chances of becoming a better individual. There are always exceptions, but I believe this in most cases to be true.

The type of people we want in society are those who care for others, strive for better things, are honest, respectful, and much more. These are the kind of values you learn in a family unit. Every single person in society comes from some sort of family unit or other, therefore, these have a large impact on society. There are often misconceptions about what a functioning family unit is – many people believe it to be the nuclear family- but I beg to differ. There have been plenty of single parents, adoptive parents, etc. who have successfully created wonderful members of society.

All in all, when people are treated well and taught how to treat others well, they tend to do it. This is why, if functional, a family unit can lead to a very happy and successful society.

Denmark’s Royal Family:

There are many crises which affect Denmark’s royal family. The crisis around which the entire play revolves is that of Old Hamlet’s murder, committed by his own brother, Claudius. One could justify Queen Gertrude’s early remarriage to her deceased husband’s brother as a way to cope with her loss.  In mourning, we are sometimes craving comfort and Claudius might have provided that for her, presenting her at the same time with someone to replace the man she so recently lost. Prince Hamlet at first does not really try to cope with this death. On the contrary, he mourns and believes that he has every reason to do so.  Once he discovers that his father was actually murdered by his uncle, his way to cope is by plotting murder as well as ranting and expressing his emotions in order to relieve himself of his troubles. Another major crisis for the family is that of Gertrude and Claudius’s belief that Hamlet is going mad.  The King and Queen first get his friends to try and find out what is troubling him. Then, when things start getting out of hand, Claudius’s way to cope with this is by plotting and succeeding in having Hamlet murdered, where as Gertrude agrees with what she believes is simply having him “go on vacation”, away from Denmark, risking her son’s life.

Polonius’s Family:

Being advisors to the Royal family, many of that family’s troubles end up affecting this one. Firstly, both Polonius and Ophelia are affected by Hamlet’s obsession with Ophelia. Hamlet’s “unstable” actions towards Ophelia frighten and sadden Ophelia, and trouble Polonius. Then, there is Polonius’s murder. Ophelia does not really cope with this, having first lost her lover, then her father, she simply goes over the edge, that is, she completely loses her mind. In the end, she kills herself. As for Laertes, his way of coping with both his father and his sister’s death is by plotting revenge against Hamlet, whom he believes is to blame by default considering he killed his father, which was the main cause of his sister going mad.

Norway’s Royal Family:

Although barely mentioned in the play, this family also faces a set of crises. The King, Fortinbras is defeated and killed by old Claudius, after making a deal which gave old Hamlet a right to his land. Prince Fortinbras is greatly troubled by this, and as a way to cope basically plots to ignore the agreements made between his father and old Hamlet, and plans an attack against Denmark. His father’s brother, now king, upon hearing of his Nephew’s behavior, is deeply upset. As a way to cope with his anger, he orders for his nephew’s arrest. As a way to cope with this, prince Fortinbras promises never to threaten Denmark again.

The Nuclear Family:

Given that a nuclear family is one composed of a biological mother and father and their children, living in a nice and loving environment, we can easily see that any concepts of such a family are destroyed in Hamlet. Prince Hamlet used to have this nice and stereotypical family, living with his mother and his father, until his uncle murdered his father and married his mother, making prince Hamlet’s uncle his new father figure. When this happens, all things start to unravel.

Although a wife is never mentioned for Polonius, we can assume that at some point the family was composed of Polonius, his wife, and their two children; Laertes and Ophelia. All is well until Polonius is murdered by Hamlet and Ophelia and Laertes both die.

Once again, although no mother is mentioned for Prince Fortinbras, we can assume that there was one, but when Old Fortinbras died, things quickly start going bad. Prince Fortinbras becomes determined to fight for his father’s honor by invading Denmark, even if this means defying his king.

In all situations, the biological father is murdered, no longer being part of the family, therefore destroying any concept of a nuclear family. All things begin to go downhill as these families cease being “nuclear”. It is as though these losses create a lack of love and destroy any sense of family unity, which always leads to no good.

   In his novel, Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut satirizes many of the important things that we as humans strive for, believe in, etc., ultimately showing us the meaninglessness and sometimes danger of human pursuit. He skillfully manages to critique our society, uncovering many of its flaws, as well as denouncing some of the pillars which it is built upon. Beginning with “Nothing in this book is true”, Cat’s Cradle embarks you on a journey that is filled with exposition, irony, and ridicule of things that some of us hold on to so dearly! (Vonnegut)

     Two incredibly important and related aspects of our society are science and military/technological advancement. Science is regarded very highly to answer many of the mysteries of the universe, as well as used for the development of different military weapons/tools. In this novel, Vonnegut explores the concept of science as a form of discovering different truths, being certain to include the fact that these truths sometimes bring us more harm than good. The book strongly exposes how technological advancements could ultimately lead to the complete annihilation of the human race. Take for example one of the main “topics” of the book. In the first page, the main character, Jonah, tells us

When I was a much younger man, I began to collect material for a book called The Day the World Ended. The book was to be factual. The book was to be an account of what important Americans had done on the day when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. (Vonnegut, 1)

Although Jonah never mentions whether or not he agrees with what happened on that day, the very nature of the title of his book – The Day the World Ended – exposes the atrocious and destructive nature in not only creating, but actually dropping an atomic bomb on other human beings. Although it may be seen as a great advancement in the real world as well as in the book, the title of Jonah’s project reveals its true nature.

     An interesting way in which Vonnegut chooses to satirize science and technological advancement is by exploring the ideas, life, personality, etc., of one of the main contributors to, or the father of, the atomic bomb. In Cat’s Cradle, this man is the fictionalized character named Felix Hoenikker (he is deceased in the novel). In fact, Dr. Breed, a man who worked with Dr. Hoenikker, told his secretary that “…the main thing with Dr. Hoenikker was truth”. (Vonnegut, 54) He also said to Jonah: ““New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become””. (Vonnegut, 41) When Jonah was allowed to visit Dr. Hoenikker’s laboratory, these were his observations:

The old man left the laboratory a mess. What engaged my attention at once was the quantity of cheap toys lying around. There was a paper kite with a broken spine. There was a toy gyroscope, wound with string, ready to whirr and balance itself. There was a top. There was a bubble pipe. There was a fish bowl with a castle and two turtles in it. (Vonnegut, 56)

Jonah was then informed that Dr. Hoenikker ““…loved ten-cent stores””. (Vonnegut, 56) The irony in this is incredible. We discover that the father of the atomic bomb, one who helped create a weapon which unleashed disaster upon thousands of people and which has the capability of destroying the world, loved playing with 10 cent toys! This in itself reveals the banality of the search for truth through science and technological advancement, not forgetting that truth was this man’s “main thing”.

     Felix Hoenikker, the man whose ““…most famous experiments were performed with equipment that cost less than a dollar””, did in fact create the substance which brought upon the end of the world. (Vonnegut, 56) During his visit with Dr. Breed, Jonah discovers how the suggestion for this substance came about. He asked Breed: ““Did anybody ever try to suggest projects to Dr. Hoenikker?””, and Breed replied with

 Certainly. Admirals and generals in particular. They looked upon him as a sort of magician who could make America invincible with a wave of his wand […] I remember, shortly before Felix died, there was a Marine general who was hounding him to do something about mud. […] The marines, after almost two-hundred years of wallowing in mud, were sick of it […] The general, as their spokesmen, felt that one of the aspects of progress should be that Marines no longer had to fight in the mud”. [Ellipses mine] (Vonnegut, 42-43)

Jonah was imagining a large amount ““…of some sort of chemical, or tons of some sort of machinery…””, but Dr. Breed informed him that ““What the general had in mind was a little pill or a little machine””. (Vonnegut, 43) When Jonah asked Breed what Hoenikker had said, Breed replied ““In his playful way, and all his ways were playful, Felix suggested that there might be a single grain of something-even a microscopic grain-that could make infinite expanses of muck, marsh, swamp, creeks, pools, quicksand, and mire as solid as this desk””. (Vonnegut, 43) Of course, they both thought it was impossible, but Dr. Breed told Jonah how, to Felix, ““it was entirely possible””, and how Felix had taken the time to explain its possibility to him. Dr. Breed did the same for Jonah, and the name that was given to this substance was ice-nine. On the contrary to what Dr. Breed and Jonah believed, Felix Hoenikker had successfully managed to create a substance named ice-nine, which had the capability of freezing every single drop of water on earth. Felix had chosen to keep it a secret, probably due to its destructive nature. Jonah later finds out, through Hoenikker’s children, that when their father had died in his comfortable wicker chair at their cottage in Cape-Cod, he left them with his ice-nine.

Apparently, before he sat down in his wicker chair and died, the old man played puddly games in the kitchen with water and pots and pans and ice-nine. He must have been converting water to ice-nine and back to water again, for every pot and pan was out on the kitchen countertops. […] The old man meant to take only a brief time out in his chair, for he left quite a mess in the kitchen. Part of the disorder was a saucepan filled with solid ice-nine. [Ellipses mine] (Vonnegut, 247-248).

When one of the Hoenikker children went to check on their father, he discovered him stiff. If this wasn’t bad enough, his three children each separated the remnants of the ice-nine and each of their portions ended up in the wrong hands, one of which was those of a dictator who decided to take the substance on his deathbed, and whose body happened to fall into the sea due to a plane crash. This caused all of the water in the world to freeze, as well as people along with it, thus resulting in the end of the world. So much for “making America invincible”! Felix, and his “playful ways” only succeeded in bringing America to an end along with the rest of the planet. This shows us exactly how dangerous technological advancements can be, as well as how Felix’s life came to a “stiffening” (yet not icy) end, as well as the world due to his invention, rendering his scientific discovery as meaningless, and destructive.

     Religion is something which many take incredibly seriously. We use it, in many ways, to justify our existence. This novel shows us how thousands of people can live happily following a religion which is based on lies, a religion called Bokononism. What makes this religion a satire is that contrary to real life, its followers are more than aware that their religion is based on lies, but happily follow it regardless. Bokononism simply provides people with the illusion of having a purpose in life. The book explores the concept that religion is simply used as a false explanation for why we are here, and what our purpose is. Vonnegut mocks and attacks almost every aspect of religion that many of us strongly believe in, ultimately declaring it as a meaningless sham-although useful for certain purposes. Bokonon describes our search for understanding perfectly in one of his “calypsos” (poems):“Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?” Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand”. (Vonnegut, 182) This obviously indicates that we use things like religion to convince ourselves that we understand life’s meaning/purpose, comparing us to animals who don’t bother searching for these kind of answers and simply live instead.

     Let us look at how Bokononism was created. Two men landed naked on the shore of the island of San Lorenzo, and placed themselves in charge of trying to create a utopia. One of them took care of government, and the other, Bokonon, “designed a new religion”. (Vonnegut, 127) In regards to this new religion, Bokonon wrote: “I wanted all things To seem to make some sense, So we all could be happy, yes, Instead of tense. And I made up lies So that they all fit nice, And I made this sad world A par-a-dise”. (Vonnegut, 127) This “calypso” shows us how this religion, followed by so many, was created by some random man who landed on the island, satirizing the fact that it doesn’t take much to invent a religion and get thousands of people to follow it, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. This is obviously a mockery as well of humans “needing” to be part of something that might provide them with answers.

     Vonnegut not only mocks the creation of religion, but its scriptures and practices as well. The first sentence in The Books of Bokonon (which would be like our bibles) is the following: “All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies””. (Vonnegut, 5) The Books of Bokonon are filled with ridiculous “calypsos” and statements which provide the people of San Lorenzo with some sort of guideline as to how to follow Bokononism, have hope, live a good life,-all the religious works. One of the common “rituals” of a Bokononist is called boko-maru. Jonah’s observations, accidentally walking in on two people performing the act, are as follows: “They had their shoes off. They had their eyes closed. They were facing each other. They were pressing the soles of their bare feet together. Each grasped his own ankles, giving himself the rigidity of a triangle”. (Vonnegut, 157) The Books of Bokonon contains an explanation of “the basis for this foot ceremony”: “We will touch our feet, yes, Yes, for all we’re worth, And we will love each other, yes, Yes, like we love our Mother Earth”. (Vonnegut, 158) Through these examples, it is evident to see that religious scriptures are satirized as books of silly poems and statements, and religious practices are satirized as foot touching. This simply points out how meaningless many of these symbols and acts can be, but how we still choose to believe in them and practice them anyways, in hopes that they will lead us to a better life.

     Another aspect of religion that Vonnegut satirizes is some people’s willingness to completely devote or submit themselves to their religious leaders, even if it means harming themselves. A few days after ice-nine freezes all of the water in the world, Jonah (being a survivor) and his wife Mona go out of hiding to find other survivors. Instead, they find a pile of stiff, dead bodies, all of them seeming to have their hands to their mouths. In the centre of them all, they found the following note:

To whom it may concern: These people around you are almost all of the survivors on San Lorenzo of the winds that followed the freezing of the sea. These people made a captive of the spurious holy man named Bokonon. They brought him here, placed him at their center, and commanded him to tell them exactly what God Almighty was up to and what they should now do. The mountebank told them that god was surely trying to kill them, possibly because He was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die. This, as you can see, they did. (Vonnegut, 273)

The note was signed Bokonon. The people of San Lorenzo killed themselves with ice-nine, simply because Bokonon suggested it to them. This satirizes the fact that religion sometimes causes people not to live or think for themselves, and simply to follow along with what someone else says, without even judging it on their own. Mona then told Jonah that Bokonon ““always said he would never take his own advice, because he knew it was worthless””, right before joining the others in death. (Vonnegut, 273) This once again shows us the absurdity of religion, and the meaninglessness of human pursuit. What did religion do for the people of San Lorenzo in the end? Cause them to commit suicide.

     As individual people, we all spend a lot of time in our lives trying to fulfill individual desires, pursuing our dreams, finding happiness, etc. The same is true for many of the characters in Cat’s Cradle. All of Felix Hoenikker’s children fulfilled their desires, but the irony in this is that their desires come true turned out to be the opposite of happiness come true. This satirizes every aspect of our human quests for love, belonging, and many other things as well. Let us look at Newt, the baby of the family. Being a midget, it was quite difficult for him to find love, which seems to be something which he was in desperate need of.  This is made clear when he describes some of his time with Zinka (another midget) to Jonah saying: ““Imagine a woman dancing just for me””, as though this was one of the most wonderful things he could have ever hoped for. (Vonnegut, 128) This is why it was easy for Zinka (who was really a Russian spy) to fool Newt into thinking she was in love with him (and half her actual age), in order to steal a piece of his ice-nine. As Jonah discovers in the newspapers, “Zinka was not, as she claimed, only twenty-three years old. She was forty-two – old enough to be Newt’s mother”. (Vonnegut, 20) Newt’s search for love ended incredibly badly, having his heart torn by his ““little Zinka, that winsome troll of Ukrainian ballet””, as Jonah describes her, who was really only with him to steal his ice-nine for Soviet Russia. (Vonnegut, 244)

     Next we have Angela, the eldest of the three Hoenikker children. Because Mrs. Hoenikker passed away at a young age, Angela was left to be the mother for her brother’s, and the wife for her father. After her father’s death, Frank no longer lived with her (she was alone with Newt) and she was desperate for companionship, having spent all of her life taking care of her family. This is why she was so easily fooled when Harrison C. Conners, the strikingly handsome president of Fabri-Tek, came knocking at her door. She describes it as follows: ““there was a knock on the door-and there stood Harrison Conners. He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. He came in, and we talked about Father’s last days and about old times in general […] Two weeks later, we were married””.[Ellipses mine] (Vonnegut, 117) Sounds like a fairytale come true, right? You must first understand that when Jonah first sees Angela, he describes her as “a horse-faced woman with platinum blonde hair”. (Vonnegut, 101) Although Angela acts like she is happily married, Newt describes it differently: ““She’s had a tough time. She needs a rest […] Her husband is mean as hell to her […] He hardly ever comes home-and when he does, he’s drunk and generally covered with lipstick””. [Ellipses mine] (Vonnegut, 179) As it turns out, Harrison was just using her for her piece of ice-nine. Once again, we are shown how Angela’s desires were fulfilled, but they turned out to be far from the fairytale she wished they would be.

     Last but not least, we have Frank Hoenikker, the middle child. Frank also ended up on the shores of San Lorenzo, but unlike Bokonon, he was put in jail due to his lack of having a passport. When the dictator of the country, named “Papa” Monzano, came to visit him in jail inquiring on whether or not he “was the blood relative of the immortal Dr. Felix Hoenikker” Frank “admitted” he was. (Vonnegut, 83) In an essay, Frank wrote: ““Since that moment, every door to opportunity in San Lorenzo has been opened wide to me””. (Vonnegut, 83) Frank’s title was “Major General Franklin Hoenikker, Minister of Science and Progress in the Republic of San Lorenzo”, and he was also “the architect of the “San Lorenzo Master Plan””. (Vonnegut, 80-81) So Frank wanted some power and authority, and he received what he hoped for, only for a terrible price. Firstly, he was going to have to marry a woman he did not love, and secondly, he ended the world. The reason why “Papa” Monzano gave him such a “fancy job” was because Frank gave him his piece of ice-nine. As mentioned above, ““Papa” Monzano was the first man in history to die of ice-nine”. (Vonnegut, 237) When a plane crashed into his house, tearing it open, the following events happened (as described by Jonah):

And somewhere in that room below, out of sight, something mightily reluctant to move was beginning to move. Down the chute it crept.[…] It was the boat in which “Papa” lay. It reached the end of the chute. Its bow nodded. Down it tipped. Down it fell, end over end. “Papa” was thrown clear, and he fell separately. I closed my eyes. There was a sound like that of the gentle closing of a portal as big as the sky, the great door of heaven being closed softly. It was a grand AH-WHOOM. I opened my eyes-and all the sea was ice-nine .[Ellipses mine] (Vonnegut, 261)

That was the day the world ended. All of this is to show that Frank’s want for a good job led him to putting a substance that could end the world into the wrong hands, “Papa’s” hands. His pursuit for “happiness”, as well as those of his brother and sister, all turned out to have absolutely tragic endings, making them ultimately meaningless and harmful.

     There is no doubt that Kurt Vonnegut masters satirizing pillars of our society by revealing the destructive nature of science and technological advancement, by mocking religion and it’s different traditions, and by showing us the ironic, if not disappointing results of personal human pursuit. He clearly paints up the fact that human pursuit can be dangerous, and many times meaningless in the end. Perhaps we should begin looking at an alternative way of living, one which consists of simply living, without always trying to fulfill certain needs or discover things which are better left undiscovered. Perhaps this is the only way that we will be capable of saving ourselves and the planet that we live on. The end of the world is not such an exaggerated hypothesis for our near future. I believe that Bokonon describes the meaninglessness of our lives perfectly in his final sentence for the Books of Bokonon:

 If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who. (Vonnegut, 287) 

I am going to present information on Borges, who, I find, is quite interesting – not only in a school related way. I shall seek out some of his stories for personal reading just because most of them sound quite awesome! I also really like the poem that I will analyze by him… In a way it’s simple, but in other ways it says a lot!!

BandwagonPamphlet

Unbreakable

Metamorphosis Essay