Blog #6: Pre-destiny

Although I’m not exactly sure what topic I would like to focus on for my second assignment, a topic I had in mind that Vonnegut constantly addresses is the idea of fate and a pre-destiny. It comes up throughout the whole book. The main basis of the belief of Bokonon is the idea of everyone having their own karass. This idea, in itself, has hints of that fate or a pre-destiny is present in everybody’s life. Even on the very first page when explaining his name he mentions the idea of fate in that his name would’ve been Jonah no matter what. He says, “…I would’ve been Jonah still–not because I have been unlucky for others, btu because somebody or something has compelled me to be certain places at certain times.” All the important occurences in the book even have come up by chance. Even the members of his karass were all people that were closely involved with the creator of the atomic bomb. His adventure in trying to write his book about the day the bomb was dropped ultimately led him to an island, San Lorenzo, where Bokonon originated. Various characters that he introduces are introduced by chance. For instance in chapter 41 he introduces the Mintons who, by chance, end up being his seat-mates. It’s intersting because Horlick Minton is the American Ambassador for the Republic of San Lorenzo and later on in the book Jonah ends up getting involved in the government of San Lorenzo as well. Even with Mona his future wife ended up being an idea of fate. He first saw her picutre somewhere else an thought she was so beautiful then on the plane to San Lorenzo he finds out that she is to be married to Frank, member of his karass, but in the end he has to end up marrying her and her ideas and beliefs doesn’t exactly match with his. The idea of the cat’s cradle is the main focus in this book and the idea of fate/pre-destiny really intertwines with this main idea because although he really thought Mona was beautiful and would be perfect for him and she ended up not being what he expected. I think that Vonnegut really believes in fate and that things happen the way their supposed to happen; everyone is connected to everyone in some way, shape, or form and if whether we anticipate it or not we can’t really help certain circumstances.