How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"There was one man they hanged here in 1782 who had murdered twenty-six people. I've often thought somebody ought to do a book about him sometimes. George Minor Moakely. He sang a song on the scaffold. He sang a song he'd composed for the occasion." (13.26)
There's a reason they call Cat's Cradle gallows humor. This quote is a perfect example of why. It finds the humor in death, which, to be fair, is a pretty difficult thing to do.
Quote #2
"And that was why [Emily] died when little Newt was born." (14.19)
Emily's death is the first one that really gets discussed in the novel. It's also a difficult one to pin down because it has so many different causes: her husband's neglect, an automobile accident, and Newt's birth. The who, what, where, and how of blame gets all jumbled up. So—maybe it was just fate?
Quote #3
"It's a small world," I observed.
"When you put it in a cemetery, it is." Marvin Breed was a sleek and vulgar, a smart and sentimental man. (31.15-16)
The quote echoes later scenes in the book where mass graves are used to bury massive amounts of people. The world certainly does seem smaller in a cemetery. We could argue the same for history.
Quote #4
"The hook," [Crosby] said. "No fines, no probation, no thirty days in jail. It's the hook. The hook for stealing, for murder, for arson, for treason, for rape, for being a peeping Tom. Break a law—any damn law at all—and it's the hook. Everybody can understand that, and San Lorenzo is the best-behaved country in the world." (43.13)
Death certainly is a deterrent for crime. But is it the right deterrent? Cat's Cradle suggests the answer is no—in one of the most over-the-top ways we can imagine.
Quote #5
The Raven was bound for the Mediterranean, but it never got there. It lost its steering; it could only wallow helplessly or make grand, clockwise circles. It came to rest at last in the Cape Verde Islands. (49.7)
We think the Raven's trip is the novel's way of suggesting the kind of random, pathless trip all of our lives take. And, yes, this is a quote from Cat's Cradle dealing with life without resorting to death. Took us a while to find it, but we did.
Quote #6
"One day [Harrison] came through Ilium. I was sitting around that big old house, thinking my life was over…." (53.15)
So, we go from "Remember, you will die" to "Remember everyone else will too." Talk about your Debbie Downers.
Quote #7
"Aamons, Mona, […]; engaged to P. Castle, 193; essential naïveté, 67-71, 80, 95 f, 116 n., 209, 274 n., 400-406, 566 n., 679; lives with Bokonon, […]." (55.2)
One person's life filtered into the index of a book. Kind of makes you think…. We aren't sure about what, but thinking is probably going to happen.
Quote #8
"When France claimed San Lorenzo in 1682," wrote Castle, "no Spaniards complained. When Denmark claimed San Lorenzo in 1699, no Frenchmen complained. When the Dutch claimed San Lorenzo in 1704, no Danes complained." (57.3)
San Lorenzo goes postcolonial on us. Once again, Cat's Cradle hammers home the point that national boundaries are perhaps a little less solid than we imagine them to be. (And maybe that's a good thing.)
Quote #9
San Lorenzo conscripted a hundred men to fight on the side of democracy. These hundred men were put on a ship bound for the United States, where they were to be armed and trained. The ship was sunk by a German submarine right outside of Bolivar harbor. (68.3-4)
Life, death, and war. Ah, the age-old tale. War and Peace would have been considerably shorter had Vonnegut gotten his hands on the manuscript.
Quote #10
"'Son,' my father said to me, 'someday this will all be yours.'" (73.44)
So Julian Castle says to his son, Philip, as they stand before a room containing piles of dead bodies. The ultimate scene of memento mori. (And all the kid wanted was a smartphone for Christmas.)