Meaning Of Pure Research In Cat's Cradle

If it was the end of the world and you only had one choice, would you choose knowing the truth or knowing you lived happily? In the book “Cat’s Cradle” written by Kurt Vonnegut, many characters have to face this decision, forming their own opinions on the meaning of “pure research” essentially between science or religion. Dr.Breed is one of the main characters that expresses his feelings toward “pure research”. As a scientist, he believes that pure research is needed in order to achieve knowledge, he glorifies the idea and even goes on to say that money is not what scientists who do pure research want to profit on, but instead just having new knowledge is desired. Dr. Breed emphasized this idea by stating that, “...men are paid to increase knowledge, to work toward no end but that...New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become”. (Vonnegut,41) Directing his life on …show more content…
Another character who believed Dr.Breed’s opinion was correct was Dr.Hoenikker, but others such as Bokonon, Miss.Faust, Miss.Pefko and even Marvin Breed- Dr.Breed’s brother considered their endeavors to be morally …show more content…
Bokonon, the founder of Bokononism, based his life on the idea that anything and everything is inevitable, that certain events would eventually happen regardless. And because these events being inevitable, Bokonon believed in not stressing on prying research for the truth of life, something that pure research definitely aimed for. Pure research influenced Dr.Hoenikker to keep working endlessly to try and discover the truth in life, while Bokonon found that this was useless. Bokonon believed that pure research was all in vain and that a person should just live their life happy and worry-free, to just accept whatever life has to offer. Bokonon opinion on Dr.Breed’s and Dr.Hoenikker philosophy would ultimately be that pure research was not the