s who helped build the bombذand their adventures. In the book Vonnegut paints an imaginary world where things might not seem to make any Gioielli 5sense. But there is in fact an amazing amount of symbolism, as well as satire. Dr. Hoenikker is an extremely eccentric scientist who spends most of his time in the lab at his company. He is interested in very few things, his children not among them. His children are almost afraid of him. One of the few times he does try to play with his children is when he tries to teach the game of cats cradle to his youngest son, Newt. When he is trying to show newt the game Newt gets very confused. In the book, this is what Newt remembered of the incident:زAnd then he sang, شRockabye catsy, in the tree topص;he sang, ش when the wind blows, the cray-dull will fall. Down will come cray-dull, catsy and all.ص زI burst into tears. I jumped up and ran out of the house as fast as I could.س(18)What Newt doesnصt remember is what he said to his Father. Later in the book we find this out from Newts sister, Angela that newt jumped of his fatherصs lap screaming ز No cat! No cradle! No cat! No cradle!س(53) With this scene, Vonnegut is trying to show a couple of things. Dr. Hoenikker symbolizes all the scientists who created the atomic bomb. And the cats cradle is the world and all of humankind combined. Dr. Hoenikker is simply playing, like he has all his life, that game just happens to involve the fate of the rest of the world. And little Newt, having a childs un-blinded perception, doesnصt understand the game. He doesnصt see a cat or a cradle. Like all the games Dr. Hoenikker plays, including the ones with nuclear weapons, this one is mislabeled. This is just one of the many episodes in the book that characterizes Dr. Hoenikker as a player of games. He recognizes this in himself when he gives his Nobel Prize speech:I stand before you no...
