Previous
Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cat’s Cradle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Morality
Religion
Governance, Politics, and Nationhood
Absurdity and Meaninglessness
Summary
Analysis
John and Dr. Breed travel through heavy traffic on their way to the lab. Dr. Breed explains that Dr. Hoenikker once abandoned his car in the middle of the Ilium traffic on the way to work. When the police called him, Dr. Hoenikker told them he didn’t want it anymore. His wife, Emily, picked it up for him—and injured her pelvis in a crash on the way home. That injury, explains Dr. Breed, is why she died giving birth to Newt.
This story is used to illustrate the way in which Dr. Hoenikker does not behave like other human beings. Leaving his car seemed a perfectly logical thing to do. The fact of his wife’s crash and subsequent death is representative of the consequences of his actions, seemingly coming about by chance—this mimicks the way in which Dr. Hoenikker saw his scientific developments as disconnected from the way in which they would be used.
Themes
