We’ve been considering, all along, how Cat’s Cradle helps us see an emphasis in postmodern literature on the construction of reality, rather than the objective representation of it. The idea of ‘postmodern literature’ can be interpreted in many different ways. Some would say it’s any written piece after World War II took place, or it could be described as literature with views going against those ideas occurring during the Enlightenment period. With keeping these two aspects of postmodernism in mind, it is very easy to apply the concept of postmodernism occurring in the novel Cat’s Cradle.
One reason would be that Cat’s Cradle was written in 1963; roughly ten years after World War II took place. This was about the time all postmodern concepts started to emerge within literature. In Cat’s Cradle, the idea of Newt, a character in the novel, paints a picture which seems off, or abnormal, some might say ugly, to the character of Julian Castle who states, “it’s black. What is it- hell?” Newt just nonchalantly replies, “It means whatever it means.” The idea of this dialog being postmodern is that it shows that postmodernism may conclude to no absolute truth, or maybe people are just a product of their own culture i.e. Bokononism.
Vonnegut’s playfulness with language, especially his invention of new words for Bokononism (such as karass and sin-wat) seem very postmodern. Bokononism is the belief or representation that people are a product of their culture or ‘social norm’. Because of this novel, everyone is secretly a Bokononist, or so it appears to be. This could be debated because everyone says everyone believes in the same thing, Bokononism. Others would say they’re restricted from believing anything else because of the social norm of that society. When it comes down to it, the people in this novel are influenced by their culture, whether negatively or positively, and this reflects a very postmodern viewpoint.
