Satire of Religion in Cat's Cradle (Essay Sample)

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Satire of Religion in Cat’s Cradle
Satire employs the techniques of parody, incongruity, reversal, and exaggeration to ridicule its subject. In the book Cat’s Cradle, religion becomes a perfect subject of satire. In Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut has created his faith, ‘Bokononism.’ The motive of creating such a religion is to satirize all the alternative beliefs. Despite being rooted in lies, the inhabitant of San Lorenzo accepts Bokononism as a religion. Concisely, in Car’s Cradle, Vonnegut uses satire to challenge conventional ideas of religion because Bokononism is built on foma, Boko-maru is mockery practice/ritual, and judgment may not exist.
Firstly, Bokononism is founded on foma. From the reading, the jargon (foma) is loosely translated as ‘harmless untruths.’ Bokononism comes as an insult to all religions. Notably, given that Bokononism represents other religious beliefs globally, Vonnegut is technically illustrating the notion that any religious belief could be a made-up subject. Therefore, the ‘pointless’ beliefs and practices that religions hold might be harmless untruths. To solidify this idea, Vonnegut (172) maintains, “Truth was the enemy of the people because the truth was so terrible.” Therefore, Bokonon saw it wise to supply its followers with better and improved lies, which explains why Bokononism’s building blocks are nothing but lies.
Secondly, Boko-maru is a mockery practice/ritual. Kurt further uses the practice of Boko-maru to mock alternative religions in their approaches to performing spiritual practices. Vonnegut (158) satirizes “the Bokononist ritual, or the mingling of awareness,” as one that brings together two individuals with their bare feet while seated. Moreover, according to Bokononism, as quoted by Vonnegut (158), “it is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving the person, provided the feet of both persons are clean and nicely tended.” From this, it emerges that Boko-maru is just an alternative approach through which the author mocks other religious beliefs in their ways of performing spiritual rituals and ceremonies. That way, Kurt is mocking how the Buddhists would meditate or how the Catholics would come together in a church.
Thirdly, Vonnegut uses the apocalypse concept to criticize the notion of judgment at the end of the world. In the apocalypse, Bokonon reveals his prophesy about the end of the world, in which he insists that it will coincide with the Lady’s Slipper II’s subsequent sailing of the sea. Notably, the story