Write an essay of 500-750 words on one of the topics below.

One: Intertextuality, a term coined by Julia Kristeva in 1969, refers to the idea that all texts are essentially mosaics of references to or quotations from other texts. It argues that no text is an isolated, closed system, but is involved in a dialogue with other texts. From its opening allusion to Moby-Dick, Cat's Cradle is self-consciously intertextual. What is the effect of Vonnegut's use of allusion to and quotation from other texts, both actual and fictional?

Two: In Cat's Cradle Vonnegut comments on important social and political issues of the 1950s and 1960s. Is his commentary relevant to our times? Write an essay in which you argue for or against the relevance of the text as social commentary in the twenty-first century.

Three: In the Epigraph of Cat's Cradle Vonnegut writes that "Nothing in this book is true. In Chapter 4, his narrator quotes Bokonon as writing that "All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies." How does Vonnegut use the concept of "truth" in this book? What kinds of "truth" are represented?

Four: In Cat's Cradle we are told that McCabe and Bokonon devise a religious and political system for San Lorenzo in which one plays the part of a tyrant and the other a saint. "Dynamic tension" (ch. 47) in which"Life became a work of art" (ch. 79). The narrator tells us that he was once a Christian, but became a Bokononist. What does the narrator find attractive about Bokononism?

Five: At several places in Cat's Cradle Newton Hoenikker repeats the sarcastic questions"See the cat? See the cradle? What does he mean by this comment? How is the image of the cat's cradle string game important in the novel?