Cradle Will Rock

Like most civilizations, Mesopotamia changed in a way that helped the people thrive. After analyzing Tom Standage’s novel, A History of the World in Six Glasses, you can begin to understand the changes. All throughout history, civilizations change; but, there are many traditions that never change. In Mesopotamia, beer became a vital source of everyday life. It played an important role in the economy of Mesopotamia and while these new developments were important, many traditions never changed.…

Vonnegut’s Ice-9 What if there existed a type of ice that could freeze anything within seconds of contact? A big plot driver in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle is the made-up bio-weapon called Ice-9 which does exactly that. When Dr. Asa Breed says, “When it [the rain] fell, it would freeze into hard little hobnails of ice-nine—and that would be the end of the world!” he clearly shows how dangerous this weapon is to the entire world (Vonnegut 50). It’s very existence would be a bigger threat…

One of the main themes of Cat's Cradle is the role of religion on people. Vonnegut concerns himself with the idea that religion is a means to restore optimism to a world damaged by the cold truths of science and reality. A good example of this is the religion of Bokononism in San Lorenzo. When telling about past of this religion, Julian Castle explains, "when it became evident that no governmental or economic reform was going to make the people much less miserable, the religion became the one…

Seven point three billion people in the world suffers from chronic undernourishment in 2015 and 2016. THe world is so unequal because of geography. Geography influences the world’s inequality because latitude affects climate in geographic locations. Climate determines inequality because it it dictates what locations have resources such as the ability to farm, qualification to domesticate animals, the capability to resist disease, and the intelligence to produce steel. The geographic locations…

For some, there must be a reason behind any phenomenon. Events do not happen haphazardly. To others, a higher power is all the reasoning they require. Being able to look up to a higher power give some people comfort. In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut questions the authenticity of both institutions through the reaction humanity has on the stances of religion and science. Through Bokononist ideas and the field of science, Vonnegut is able to portray the effects religion and science…

lives can be lost, his own usually not included. Kurt Vonnegut is a fantastic author that uses satire in order to draw attention and ridicule the flaws of mankind, most of which end in destruction and chaos of some sort. In two of his novels, Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five, damage and destruction of millions is determined by what can potentially be a single man’s decision. Vonnegut himself experienced the bombing of Dresden, about which he wrote in Slaughterhouse-Five, first hand. He was…

History tells the story of human kinds past. The human species evolved from hunters and gatherers to Neolithic people, who began to build villages, which turned to cities all around the world. This transition gave humans a new way of life, focusing on things like building cultures and monuments, which will stand the tests of time. Throughout history, many civilizations have sprung up with different cultures, ideas, technologies, and political systems. However, not all these civilizations…

Autumn is a time traditionally associated with the beauty of nature, the changing of the leaves, the crisp air. However, Mary Shelley’s autumn, as depicted in the last paragraph on page 131, is a time of transition, a time between the joys of summer and the utter desolation of winter. In her best-known novel, Frankenstein, Shelley utilizes the change of the seasons to illustrate the monster’s position in between nature and civilization. Civilization is defined as human cultural, social, and…

“Over 20 percent of all American children live below the poverty line. This rate is higher than almost all other developed countries” (Schwartz). Why is the world so unequal? The world is unequal due to geography. Where a civilization is in the world affects what they grow, domesticated animals, minerals and ability to make steel, and exposure to germs and disease. Geography location affects what crops are being grown and developed in a civilization by their climate. If poeple are living in a…

Just because someone is seen as a certain ways doesn’t mean that is truly who they are. Someone's features don’t make them who they are or any less of a human as anyone else. It makes them who they are. In “Cat’s Cradle” many characters come off to someone completely different than who they really are. Papa Monzano has everyone believing he is christian because he knows bokononism is strongly disagreed with. He doesn’t let the world know until he barely has any time. He wants to get bokonon…