The other day in class, I asked you all to define "Truth".What a ridiculous question.
As soon as you figure it out, let me know, and I'll book you a spot on The View. Until then, let's deal with a more manageable question:
Based on your reading of Cat's Cradle, how does Vonnegut lead us to view truth?
And here's the kicker. The first three people to post, only need to answer the question. All posters after that need to answer the question and specifically respond to another poster's thoughts.
Try not to respond only to your buddies; respond to comments that you have something to say about. This blog assignment WILL be graded. Be thoughtful; be smart. AND WARNING: I wouldn't even try this until you've finished the book!
12 comments:
Vonnegut leads us to view truth by the following- "The name was my last name,too".This quotation is located on page 73 at the end of the "vin-dit" chapter. This is after finding out that the last name on the tombstone was his as well.
Vonnegut leads us to view truth through satire and parodies.If you can understand it enough to mock it correctly then there's nothing else you need to understand.
-Tiffany
In my opinion Vonnegut leads us to viewing truth as something that can also be a lie. Like Jonah if you want the truth you need to search for it. But the "truth" can only be as truthful as your source. Such as when Dr. Breed told Jonah there was no such thing as "ice-nine" but he later found out that Dr. Hoenikker indeed left his very children with duplicates of his invention. Dr. Breed also explains how his company is of the few that conducts pure research and "the more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."
i believe that truth is when you are being "real" with somebody. You don't leave anything to the side, you just come straight forward with it.
Thanks for being so proactive about completing the assignment, but I'm not sure you can address what conclusions Vonnegut leads us to about truth until you've gotten to the end of the book.
Alex - do you feel that Dr. Breed is a reliable character? Does Vonnegut make him into a man the reader will agree with or question? Therefore, when he says "The more truth we have to work with..." do you agree that truth is a thing you can readily identify?
Ms. McEvoy - I believe that Vonnegut indeed made Dr. Breed a man to question. I think that when Breed said "the more truth we have to work with, the richer we become", he means the truth as pure research. The more they have of true, factual research the better they can conduct experiments with. That is why I believe that Vonnegut makes us view the truth as something you need to search for.
But do you believe that truth is a commodity that you can gather like apples? "The more truth we have..." are you sure one can even identify truth when he or she sees it? Is my truth the same as your truth? Is Jonah's truth the same as Dr. Breed's truth? How do we know truth is... true?
You make a good argument Ms. McEvoy, but the truth cannot be a commodity solely because we as humans are imperfect. Therefore our truths can't be the same because say you may be telling the truth to me but in your mind it is a lie. Jonah's truth isn't the same as Dr. Breed's because Breed is a scientist meant to lie to the public eye to "protect" humans. Like I said before: the truth can only be as truthful as your source. It can only be as truthful as you see or think it may be.
rgrssmzVonnegut leads us to view truth as death and to make us feel that the irony and lies are a sort of happy place and paradice. Though I'm not done with the book I have reviewed that in many chapters I saw how Vonnegut portrays his own arguement towards how both scientists and people from religions feel about truth as the ithaka to journey for and something great. He uses humor and black comedy to mainly protray his ideas. It's crazy how Dr. Breed (a scientist) says that " New knowledge is the most valuable commodity (something useful) on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become". This the same quote Alex used, and its a great quote that Vonnegut uses cause it shows mainly how not, only Dr.Breed feels about truth but what ALL scientists believe truth is. From this Vonnegut portrays normal people in the book (Like Miss. Pefko) as people with no clue. Then he protrays people who have religion as people who understand truth as something to search for (Sort of like scientists). In my opinion and conclusion I feel that Vonnegut attacks the main thought of truth as being something to desire by using irony and black comedy to portray otherwise. To portray that truth is undesireable and not wise to look for.
-Angel
At the beginning of the book it mentions "Nothing in this book is true. Live by the [harmless untruth]..". I think Vonnegut make us view the truth by satires like Tiffany said. Uses people to show us the truth and lies. Miss Pefko a ordinary citizen, who does her job and unaware of what going on. Also Mona a beautiful women who not really smart.You got the religious people who believe religion is truth. Then you got the scientist who believe science is truth. Basically it a Ithaka like Angel said. A journey to find the truth. Humans are imperfect like Alex said. You may think you know the truth, but the truth can be a lie. In result Vonnegut is telling us nobody knows the truth. Everyone has their own vision of truth. We as humans being are imperfect to know reality. We are in a journey to discover the truth. He let us see human society by using satires and black comedy.
In the novel Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut leads us to believe that truth is meaningless in ones life. Mainly because truth could not exist without lies, therefore is a lie within its self. In comparison to another point Vonnegut makes in the novel when he says good could not exist without evil. As for a response to another poster's comment i would have to say that Alex and I is probably on the same page, connecting the truth with lies.
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