Life and Death in Cats Cradle :: essays research papers

Life and Death in Cats Cradle   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Life is a struggle to defy the inevitable. Since the beginning of time man has contemplated his own death, labored over the meaning of life, and created religion to explain all that he can not understand. Death at some point will catch up with all of society and at some point the entire world as human beings have come to know it will come to an end. No one can hide from death or attempt to out run its ever-expanding claw; death is absolute. It is possibly the only certainty in all of human existence. Whether the sun explodes sucking itself into its own infinite gravity, or human beings finally manage to destroy this beautiful planet, life will end. All great societies have come to tragic anti-climatic ends. The Romans slowly poisoned themselves through their use of an amazingly complex lead piping system, and Athens feel eventually to an equally dismal fate. In our modern society the world has watched as many threats of global destruction have come and gone. The f act that currently the nuclear arsenal of the United States alone could easily destroy all of earth leaves many fearing that the end is near. The contemplation of ones eventual demise leads one to think that life is no longer worth the effort to live. In Cats Cradle the destruction of the world is realized by the invention of a substance capable of freezing all water on earth. Its inventor was a peaceful man, a man who invented for the sake of discovery, for the sake of the human race. It was only after his death, that the greed and stupidity of man allowed this substance to end all man has struggled to create. Throughout human existence man’s disregard for his home and his environment is evident in all aspects of cultural. This disregard for the frailties of nature will eventually lead to the death of all humanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Cat’s Cradle the narrator John winds his way through the events that eventually lead to the destruction of the human race. Life to John is a quest; a quest that is defined finally by his new found religion Bokononism. He feels that everyone in his life revolves around him as they all search for something of meaning in their lives; this group is called a karass. Life is a gift that is never solicited and often unappreciated after given.