Cat’s Cradle focuses on nuclear bombs, and the technology used to make them. People concentrate their time and efforts into discovering new truths that will lead them to more great discoveries. Everything involving science and discovering is seen as a great tribute to mankind. For example, a compound is discovered that could potentially turn all the water in the world to ice, "...suppose, young man, that one Marine had with him a tiny capsule containing a seed of ice-nine, a new way for the atoms of water to stack and lock, to freeze. If that Marine threw that seed into the nearest puddle...? The puddle would freeze? I guessed. And all the muck around the puddle? It would freeze? And all the puddles in the frozen muck? They would freeze? And the pools and the streams in the frozen muck? They would freeze? You bet they would !" He cried. "And the United States Marines would rise from the swamp and march on!" Although this molecule has the potential to dehydrate and kill everyone and everything in the world, people think it is amazing, and great because we know more about the world.
Kurt Vonnegut satirizes the use of science to find a grand narrative in human life. By giving us examples like ice nine he shows us that truths do not always lead to a utopian world, rather that they lead to the opposite. He gives examples that show that finding truth leads to more chaos and more questions to be answered. He shows that he believes that not everything revolves around scientific discoveries, but rather your own morals and what you do with what you know. Vonnegut rejects the enlightenment ideas that finding out all the answers and secrets to life will result in happiness and global well being. He has a post modern outlook on life and relates this throughout his novel.
