Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle follows as post modernist theme in a number of ways. Before we elaborate as to how Vonnegut constructs the novel as a post modernism novel, let us first address what post modernism actually is. Post modernism was a reaction to the modernism movement. It rejected the modernism movement. This rejection was evident in many areas such as literature, architecture, cinema, and so forth and so on. Modernism was centered around standardization and uniformity and regarded democracy as sin. Post modernism, on the other hand, was overwhelmingly democratic in nature. It rejected the idea that though had to be controlled and universal. It rejected that there was a set meaning in anything. Cat’s Cradle has a strong undertone of post modernism.
One of the strongest areas in which Cat’s Cradle relates post modernism is in chapters 74-79. In these chapters one of the main focuses is Newt’s painting and the reactions to it by Newt Hoenikker himself, Julian Castle, Angela Hoenikker, and the narrator. The painting is described by the narrator when he first arrives at Frank Hoenikker’s home. “Newt’s painting was small and black and warty. It consisted of scratches made in a black, gummy impasto. The scratches formed a sort of spider’s web, and I wonder if they might not be the sticky nets of human futility hung up on a moonless night to dry.” The painting is very abstract, as an art form it is very different than the modernist box buildings. What’s more, it follows the post modernistic characteristic in that it has no real set meaning. Each person sees it differently. As stated in the above quote, the narrator sees it as a symbol of the “sticky nets of hum futility.” Newt, however, sees it as a representation of the absence of a cat or a cradle in the string game called cat’s cradle, but rather just a succession of x’s. Angela sees it as a simply ugly mess and Castle sees it as a representation of hell and throws it off the terrace, calling it “Garbage-like everything else.”
This is but one example of how Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle contains a post modernist theme. There is evidence of this theme all over the novel. This example speaks very loudly to me. I really liked the symbolic meaning of Newt’s painting.
