Academic Decathlon 2020-2021: Language and Literature
Who is Mona Aamons Monzano in Cat's Cradle?
"Papa"'s beautiful adopted daughter, she is the object of Jonah's desire, she is married to Frank Hoenikker, and she survives the initial apocalypse but then commits suicide using ice-nine
What is the climax of Cat's Cradle?
"Papa"'s frozen corpse is discovered, Dr. Von Koenigswald accidentally commits suicide, the Day of Hundred Martyrs to Democracy ceremony starts and a San Lorenzan Air Force plane accidentally crashes into the cliff below "Papa"'s castle causing a landslide
When and where was Kurt Vonnegut born?
1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana
When did Khrushchev take over the USSR?
1953
When was the Berlin Wall built?
1961
When was Khrushchev out of power?
1964
When did US troops withdraw from Vietnam?
1975
When were East and West Germany reunified?
1990
What was National Security Council Resolution 68?
A 1950 proposed massive military buildup to deter the Soviets
What is On the Beach?
A 1957 novel by Nevill Shute that depicted a world in which a massive nuclear war had eradicated most of the Northern hemisphere and toxic radioactive fallout was slowly spreading through the world and killing everyone
What is Level 7?
A 1959 novel by Mordecai Rushwald that warns about the dangers of over reliance on technology in preparing for the nuclear war by depicting a man who pushes a button that launches missiles at enemies causing nuclear war to ensue, the bunker system to fail, and humanity to die
What is A Canticle for Leibowitz?
A 1959 novel by Walter M. Miller that depicted a remote monastery trying to preserve the remnants of human knowledge and then over the next eleven years the world rebuilds itself up to the same level of technology as before the nuclear war causing a new nuclear war to be imminent
What was the Bay of Pigs invasion?
A 1961 failed invasion of Cuba by the US after Kennedy became president
What is a karass?
A Bokonist concept that describes teams that do God's will
What is a granfalloon?
A Bokonist concept that describes the artificial notion of shared identity
Who was Nikolai Novikov?
A Soviet diplomat in Washington who sent a telegram to the Soviet Union that said that the US wanted world domination
Who was Joseph McCarthy?
A US senator who accused everyone of being a Communist, he inspired Arthur Miller's play The Crucible
What is black humor?
A darkly humerus and ironic tone that is mostly used when discussing grave topics
Who is Dr. Schlichler von Königswald in Cat's Cradle?
A former Aushwitz doctor who is staff in Julian Castle's hospital and "Papa"'s personal doctor
Who is Julian Castle in Cat's Cradle?
A philanthropist and head of sugar company, he founds the House of Hope and Mercy in the Jungle, his character is based on European sugar barons and Albert Schweitzer, his prescnse in San Lorenzo represents a conflict in values, and Jonah compares hm to Tommy Manville, Barbara Hutton, Hitler, and Mussolini
Who is Sandra in Cat's Cradle?
A prostitute and former high school classmate of Frank Hoenikker that provides into the Hoenikker family's unhappiness
Who is Marvin Breed in Cat's Cradle?
A tombstone salesman in Illium, New York, Asa Breed's brother, he provides Jonah with context about the Hoenikker family, he criticizes Felix's lack of care for family, community, and humanity, and foreshadows the end of the novel
When did the term "Cold War" enter mainstream usage?
After Bernard Baruch and Walter Lippmann used it
What happens at the meeting between Frank and Jonah?
All the Hoenikker children show up along with Julian Castle who reveals "Papa"'s cancer diagnosis, Dr. Von Koenigswald is introduced as an embodiment of good and evil, when Frank arrives he offers Jonah the presidency of San Lorenzo, Jonah declines until Frank tells him that he will marry Mona
Who is Earl McCabe in Cat's Cradle?
An American who deserted from the Marines and became the co-founder of San Lorenzo, he sets up a system where he is president and him and Bokonon oppose each other to create distracting entertainment
What was the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty?
An agreement signed by the US and USSR in 1963 that was largely symbolic and began a slow of the arms race
Who is Lyman Enders Knowles in Cat's Cradle?
An elevator operator at General Forge and Foundry
Who is Felix Hoenikker in Cat's Cradle?
An unemotional scientists that brings the death of the planet, he worked as a research scientists for General Forge and Foundry, and his character contains parodic echoes of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Who does Jonah meet on his way to San Lorenzo?
Angela and Newt Hoenikker, Horlick Minton, and H. Lowe Crosby
Who are the Hoenikker children in Cat's Cradle?
Angela is the oldest, she mostly raised the other two, she is awkward and unattractive but marries rich because she bribes her husband with ice-nine, Newt is the youngest, he trades letters with Jonah and barters a chip of ice-in for a relationship with a Ukrainian dancer, and Frank is the middle child and he becomes a high-ranking official in San Lorenzo
What was a big factor in the 1960 US presidential campaign?
Anti-communism
When were the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
August of 1945
What information does Jonah gain from his interview with Asa Breed?
Breed tells Jonah that Felix indirectly contributed to his wife's death and Breed tells him that the Marine general wanted a solution to fighting in the mud so Felix came up with ice-nine which turned any liquid to solid immediately
What is deterrence?
Building up a nuclear arsenal in an effort to keep the other side from attacking
When was the USSR officially dissolved and the Cold War officially over?
December 26, 1991
What event in Cat's Cradle sets the tone of irony?
Early in the novel John/Jonah has conversations with Asa Breed about a murder and Breed and Felix Hoenikker eventually lead to the death of everyone in the world
How did the Hoenikker children acquire ice-nine?
Felix Hoenikker had a heart attack in Cape Cod, the children found the dog dead and realized ice-nine killed it, they then found the ice-nine and split it among themselves
What elements of Cat's Cradle contribute to the theme of nuclear weapons?
Felix Hoenikker's connection to the Manhattan Project is a link to an actual threat facing the world, ice-nine represents the atomic bomb threat, and the title and subject of Jonah's book associated the novel's climax with nuclear weapons
Who is Emily Hoenikker in Cat's Cradle?
Felix's wife who died soon after Newt's birth
What events surround "Papa"'s death in Cat's Cradle?
Frank and Jonah go to visit him while he is on his death bed to get his approval in order to make Jonah president and he refuses Christian last rites and has Bokonist ritual instead, it is the Day of Hundred Martyrs to Democracy and cardboard cutouts of Cold War adversaries are set up to be shot (Stalin, Castro, Mao, Hitler, etc.), "Papa" uses a chip of ice-nine to commit suicide
Who was the first person to use the term "Cold War"?
George Orwell in a 1945 essay
What two Kurt Vonnegut works elaborated on his humanistic values and opposition to nuclear weapons?
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Deadeye Dick
Why did the Soviet Union blockade Berlin in 1948?
Great Britain, the US, and France all wanted to combine their portions of Germany
Who are H. Lowe Crosby and Hazel Crosby in Cat's Cradle?
H. Lowe is a bicycle manufacturer who is relocating his company from Illinois to San Lorenzo, he is constantly patriotic but complains about not being able to exploit his workers, and he is one of the last apocalypse survivors, Hazel is his wife who thinks that being from Indiana is extremely significant
What was Reagan's military policy?
He built it up
What happens when Jonah goes to the the hotel in San Lorenzo?
He meets Philip Castle and then walks in on the Bokonist communion ritual of boko-manu
Why does Jonah go to San Lorenzo in Cat's Cradle?
He sees an ad fro San Lorenzo that features Mona and he is smitten, he also sees a photo of Frank Hoenikker and he is the Minister of Science and Progress in San Lorenzo, he also needs to write an article about Julian Castle
What were the most significant events in Kurt Vonnegut's life?
He served in the US army in WWII and was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and became a military prisoner, he also worked for the General Electric Research Laboratory
Who is Asa Breed in Cat's Cradle?
He was Felix Hoenikker's boss and is the director of the research laboratory at General Forge and Foundry, he praises Hoenikker and has a fervent brief in pure research
Who are Horlick and Claire Minton in Cat's Cradle?
Horlick is a newly appointed US ambassador to San Lorenzo and Claire is his wife and a professional book indexer who writes a letter to the New York Times that get her husband fired exemplifying McCarthyism, they are both ineffectual critical observers in the book
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
In 1962 Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba due to Soviet war heads
When was the US presence in Vietnam increased?
In 1964 after the Gulf of Tonkin incident
When did USSR Eastern European satellites begin to collapse?
In 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall
What was the Long Telegram?
In February of 1946 George Kennan, a US diplomat stationed in Moscow, sent a telegram back to Washington describing Soviet government and saying that the US and Soviet Union could not coexist
When did the period of detente take place during the Cold War?
In the late 1960s through the late 1970s
What is the significance of the title Cat's Cradle?
It established the author's satirical perspective by contrasting a serious subject with a child's game
What is the plot of The Sirens of Titan?
It followed an eccentric billionaire named Malachi Constant who met with a man named Winston Niles Rumfoord (who was traveling through space and time) every 59 days, Rumfoord tells him that the Earth is being controlled by a robot named Salo who has been stranded on Saturn's moon Titan and all of the significant events of human history are communications between Salo and his home planet
What is the plot of Mother Night?
It is a manuscript of a memoir that Vonnegut is editing that is written by a prisoner named Howard W. Campbell Jr who is awaiting trial in Israel for Nazi war crimes even though he was actually a double agent, even though he was working for the "right" side he was still not completely moral
What is the plot of Player Piano?
It is dystopian and based on Vonnegut's experience as an employee of GE, the US is in recovery from the Third World War and uses extreme industrial automation to make up for the loss of humans, it follows Proteus who is a middle manager a Illium Works who gradually awakens to the dehumanizing aspects of the world and joins an unsuccessful revolt against it
What was the Cold War's legacy?
It led to the oppression of minorities especially in the US and historians view it as a harmful diversion of the world's attention, resources, and economic power
What is the purpose of the satire and black humor used in Cat's Cradle?
It tries to burst the ideological balloons of the Cold War
How does Cat's Cradle end?
Jonah is raging against Bokonon then he sees a man on the side of the road, realizes it is Bokonon, and talks with him, Bokonon says he is drawing his book to a close and gives Jonah a piece of paper that contains the final lines of the book
What events start the apocalypse at the end of Cat's Cradle?
Jonah moves a stone causing the contents of "Papa"'s room to fall toward the sea, the entire ocean freezes solid, and giant tornadoes scatter ice-nine, Mona and Jonah climb into a bomb shelter, when they come out they find everyone dead from a mass suicide suggested by Bokonon
What metafictional interlude occurs before "Papa"'s death in Cat's Cradle?
Jonah talks with H. Lowe Crosby about his status as a writer, he talks about his obligations, and it previews the fact that he wrote the book the reader is reading, the whole interlude sheds light on Vonnegut's intentions
When did Cold War divisions begin?
Late 1943 - early 1946
When was the People's Republic of China created?
Late 1949 after Mao Zedong's victory
When was the Truman Doctrine announced?
March 12, 1947
What characters give Jonah additional insight into Felix Hoenikker's character and the Hoenikker family?
Miss Faust, Lyman Ender Knowles, Marvin Breed, and Jack
What happens to the survivors of the apocalypse in Cat's Cradle?
Mona kills herself using ice-nine, Jonah, Frank, Newt, and the Crosbys create a small society, the Castles died at their hospital, Angela died playing the clarinet
What was Kurt Vonnegut's third novel and when was it published?
Mother Night in 1961
What information is revealed in the letters between Jonah and Newt in Cat's Cradle?
Newt is failing pre-med at Cornell, they talk about his dim memories of Felix on the day of the atomic bomb drop, they introduce the siblings and messy family dynamic, and they introduce Zinka (the Ukrainian dancer Newt is in a relationship with)
What instance in Cat's Cradle connects directly to the title?
On the day of the atomic bomb drop Felix Hoenikker takes a piece of string from a sci-fi novel about a mad scientist destroying the world and uses it to make a "cat's cradle" for Newt
What reforms did Gorbachev institute when he came into power in 1985?
Open avenues for foreign investment, greater individual and social freedoms, and the withdrawing of troops from Afghanistan
What was Kurt Vonnegut's first novel and when was it published?
Player Piano in 1952
What happens when Jonah arrives in San Lorenzo?
San Lorenzo is much different from the ads, when he arrives there is a ceremony officially welcoming the American ambassador (Horlick Minton) at the ceremony "Papa" collapses after introducing Frank and Mona and he names Frank as his successor
What happens when Jonah and Mona meet?
She suggests book-maru, Jonah insists that she only do it with him, she calls him a sinwat and threatens to abandon him
What is apocalyptic literature?
Stories that depict the end of the world
What is San Lorenzo a symbol of in Cat's Cradle?
Superpowers's manipulation and exploration of the Third World during the Cold War
What do the final lines of Cat's Cradle say?
That Bokonon will use ice-nine to turn himself into a statue that thumbs its nose at God which will acknowledge God's existence while undermining his moral and ethical significance
What is the name of the book that Jonah is writing in Cat's Cradle?
The Day the World Ended
What was the Cold War's first large proxy war?
The Korean War
What was Kurt Vonnegut's second novel and when was it published?
The Sirens of Titan in 1959
What was US and Soviet involvement in the Middle East during the Cold War?
The US supported Israel and the USSR supported Egypt, Syria, and Jordon
When were the spheres of influence that became the Iron Curtain drawn?
The Yalta Conference in 1945
What were the reasons for detente?
The arms race and limited international trade were economically bad for both sides
Who is Philip Castle in Cat's Cradle?
The cynical son of Julian Castle, he was a personal pupil of Bokonon, he is author on an unpublished book about San Lorenzo, he is a talented visual artists, and owner of the island's only hotel
What is mutually assured destruction?
The idea that each side has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other side if struck
When did the US and USSR have enough weapons to make the world uninhabitable?
The late 1950s
When did the Cultural Revolution take place?
The late 1960s
When did East and West Germany become independent nations?
The mid-1950s
Who is John/Jonah in Cat's Cradle?
The narrator and protagonist, he spends most of the book collecting other characters's stories for research for his book about the atomic bomb, he ends up being the successor to "Papa" Mozano and indirectly contributes to the ice-nine incident that ends the world
Who is Jack in Cat's Cradle?
The owner of a hobby shop in Illium that Frank Hoenikker went to often, he has a sympathetic view of Frank even though Frank later reveals he was sleeping with his wife
Who is Lionel Boyd Johnson/Bokonon in Cat's Cradle?
The philosophical center of the novel and the first voice to appear in the book, he became a mystical holy man after being shipwrecked on San Lorenzo, he offers lies to San Lorenzo through his religion, and he appears in person once in the final chapter to give one last message to Jonah
Who is "Papa" Monzano in Cat's Cradle?
The present-day dictatorial president of San Lorenzo, he is a parody of Cold War-era rulers like Carlos Castillo's Armas, he wants to encourage hyper-patriotic businessmen to move their businesses to San Lorenzo, he uses his adopted daughter as currency to purchase the service of Frank Hoenikker and his chip of ice-nine, and his frozen corpse falling into the sea causes the end of the world
What is the significance of Bokonism in Cat's Cradle?
The religion has no claims to truth and states that all of Bokonon's words are lies and the fact that all of San Lorenzo follows Bokonon raises questions about the role of beliefs in the age of the Cold War
What elements of Cat's Cradle contribute to the theme of damaged parent-child relationships?
There are both literal and figurative flawed parent-child relationships in the book and the metaphorical paternalism of Cold War superpowers towards other nation parallels the parent-child relationships in the novel which is a commentary on the psychological image of the Cold War on humanity
What quality do all the Hoenikker children have in common in Cat's Cradle?
They all have demonstrable talents but no way to make them meaningful in their lives and they instead choose to barter ice-nine for comfort
Who are Miss Pefko and Miss Faust in Cat's Cradle?
They are secretaries at General Forge and Foundry the demonstrate the era's false presumption about the comparative abilities of men and women
What did the House Committee on Un-American Activities do?
They conducted investigations and blacklisted several artists, writers, and people in Hollywood for suspected Communist activity
What purpose did smaller countries serve during the Cold War?
They were ideological stand-ins for large powers
