99 pages 3 hours read

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Cat's Cradle

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1963

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapters 74-99Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 74 Summary: “Cat’s Cradle”

John goes to Frank’s elegant house, designed and previously owned by Nestor Aamons. Finding that Frank is not home, John visits Newt on a terrace overlooking a waterfall. Newt shows John his black, scratchy painting in progress, which is of a cat’s cradle string figure and paradoxically contains neither a cat nor a cradle.

Chapter 75 Summary: “Give My Regards to Albert Schweitzer”

Angela appears with a man who introduces himself as Julian Castle. John asks whether Julian is a follower of Albert Schweitzer, a noted German theologian. Julian says that Schweitzer is not his role model but admits that Schweitzer influenced his view of Jesus.

Chapter 76 Summary: “Julian Castle Agrees With Newt That Everything Is Meaningless”

John explains Newt’s painting to Julian, who agrees with its implication that life is meaningless and admits that he only mentioned Jesus as something to talk about. To prove his point that “man is vile, and man makes nothing worth making, knows nothing worth knowing” (169), he tosses the painting over the waterfall.

Related Titles

By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Guide cover image