Living on a Throne of Lies

After class today and after reading Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, it's easily to get lost in the misery and despair of the world he depicts. He has shown us readers a world that is essentially pointless and without a purpose. What I believe to be the clearest illustration of this is found in the first sentence of the First Book of Bokonon. It describes how when God created the world and man, man asks God, "'What is the purpose of all this?' 'Everything must have a purpose?' asked God. 'Certainly,' said man" (265). Here, God, the creator of all things, does not supply the question of the meaning of the world; man does.

Now I know what you're thinking, that this is nothing but foma, nothing but a pack of lies. I'll bear with you on this. Say that we take this story from the First Book of Bokonon and we examine it understanding that it's all lies. If we read that passage on page 256 line by line, word by word, we can rule out all of this Genesis-esk story with the exception of one line:

Everything must have a purpose?

What is incredible about this question is that no matter how skeptical you are of what this passage says, this question still remains. It is, in essence, immune to our skepticism and therefore persists in the text. Consequently, we as readers ask ourselves questions like, "Is there really a purpose to our world? Is it man that really supplies the meaning of the world? Why should there be a purpose to all of this?"

And so we fall into our own game, into the game Vonnegut wants us to notice: into our own cat's cradle. Every human being, in one form or another, is compelled to find meaning and purpose in all things. It is a natural part of our evolution and it is why we have science, religion, nations, cultures, societies, families, love…

But as Vonnegut shows us, in the end (literally), none of this matters. The reality we perceive is ultimately and absolutely meaningless, because like a game of cat's cradle, there is no purpose to it. We just keep pulling on the strings, making things look different, but like "Jonah" says, "'what would it mean?'" (271).

So our lives our meaningless, according to Vonnegut, and it is, in the very least, convincing. However, we cannot forget that if games are to provide us with anything, it is comfort. Vonnegut shows us in the end of the novel that it's okay to find comfort in love, and family, and religion, things that are without an ultimate meaning. That's all fine as long as we find comfort and consolation in what we do because that will, at the end of everything, help us deal with the hopelessness of our world and our existence.

As a student, as an aspiring scientist, and as a devout Catholic, I find this all both jarring and oddly soothing. So what if there is no purpose to it all? So what if I'm just living in some game? Despite everything Vonnegut says, I can still hold onto the fact that my existence is enriched by how I experience it, by how I enjoy it. So even if all that becomes of me is a pile of ash, I can be comforted by the fact that I will have loved others, lived a life of compassion, and that I lived enjoying everything I did. At least I can have that.