Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut is a novel about a guy named John who decides to write a book about the father of the atom bomb, Felix Hoenikker. The narrator decides to ask Felix's kids about their dad, and through that the narrator goes to the home town of Felix Hoenikker. There, the narrator meets his boss, and other colleagues who all say that Felix was quite an eccentric man. He always ate lunch by himself, even though he was a father of 3 his oldest took care of the family.
Felix's son Frank, becomes the Major-Domo of an island near Cuba. Oddly enough, the narrator is going to there to write an article. On the plane ride, the narrators meets the whole Hoenikker family. (except Felix, who is dead)
The Island is the exact opposite of communism, but similar. The Island has only one religion, and his "America's best friend." However, the island has a dictator, who is smilingly rich when the inhabitants are poor.
I'm about in the middle of the book, but I'm not too sure of what the message is. However, I think that I'm coming to the conclusion that capitalism is just has bad as communism. This might be a very vague and ambiguous statement, but the island represents capitalism with the same negative qualities of communism. The government is undoubtedly corrupt, and hides the countries secrets from their people. They manipulate their currency to almost match the American dollar, and they outlaw a religion with the purposeful idea to keep the people of the island under control. To me, this points to communism, 100%.
Not to mention this book was written in the 60's, when the Cold War was going on.
When I finish the book, I hope to get a much broader understanding about what this message means.
