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Chapter 50
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 finds Angela and Newt. From the present, John criticizes them for carrying ice-nine, “while under us was God’s own amount of water.” Angela says she didn’t reply to John’s letter as she didn’t have anything interesting to say about the day the bomb dropped—it was “just like a regular day.” She’s surprised Newt replied, saying that she doesn’t she how he could remember anything about that day.
Angela tells John that Dr. Breed told her not to have contact with him. John says he’ll probably never finish the book anyway. She says that, if he does, he better make her father “a saint, because that’s what he was.” She explains that they are heading to San Lorenzo for a wedding—Frank is due to wed Mona.
Angela is a blind devotee of her father and frequently tries to defend his reputation. The use of the word “saint” is an ironic gesture to the role of religion in the novel.
Themes
