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Chapter 108
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cat’s Cradle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Morality
Religion
Governance, Politics, and Nationhood
Absurdity and Meaninglessness
Summary
Analysis
John asks Frank, as his “general,” how he proposes to clean up “this mess.” Frank suggests they sweep up the big pieces ice-nine, melt them in a bucket, and blowtorch “every square inch of floor with a blowtorch, in case there are any crystals.” In an eureka moment, he proposes that they burn the bodies on a funeral pyre by the hook.
Considering the devastating simplicity of ice-nine, the reader senses that this clean-up operation is doomed to failure (and has been informed as much by John throughout). These actions therefore have an air of desperation—it’s too late.
Themes
As Frank goes to leave in order to fetch the tools they need, Angela asks, “How could you give it to a man like “Papa” Monzano?” Contemptuously, Frank says that he’s acted in the same as she did to get a “tomcat husband,” and Newt did to buy “himself a week … with a Russian midget” (Zinka).
The truth about the Hoenikkers is exposed—each of them used ice-nine for personal gain.
Themes
