Distorted Views

As children we all grow up learning certain things, accepting most of them to be true. We rarely question what we are being taught, and seldom try to come up with our own radical ideas. We accept the accepted and move on. So many beliefs and ideas in our society rely on our acceptance and faith to exist. This idea of reliance became clear to me while analyzing Cat’s Cradle.

The story Vonnegut wrote primarily deals with the topic of religion: the idea that religion is constructed to make us happy. We, as humans, need to have something to believe in. We use religion to define good and bad, right and wrong, when really how do we know any of what we believe in is actually true? It would be impossible to prove that each religion is right, so instead we have faith that what we think, is correct. We are satisfied believing what we have been taught. Consequently, without this devotion to the unknown, religion would be nonexistent.

“Little Newt snorted. ‘Religion!’ ‘Beg your pardon?’ Castle said. ‘See the cat?’ asked Newt. ‘See the cradle?’” (Vonnegut 183)

If we, as people, don’t believe in something, then it doesn’t necessarily exist: in our own world at least. This holds true for the metaphor of the cat’s cradle. If you are unwilling to try and see the cat’s cradle in the string, then there is no way you will ever believe that it is there. On the other hand, if you have been told to look for a cat’s cradle, then it becomes easier to distort what you are looking at into what you now view as the “right answer”.