INS+-+focus+assignment

Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Characterization - January 7, 2012

For my focus assignment i chose to characterize a very special person in the book. He is the creator of a new religion that was outcast by the President of a fictional country called San Lorenzo. Although he was made a wanted man, everyone in that country sought out his religion and followed it to the last sliver of life they had. They called him Bokonon, and they called his religion Bokononism. Bokonon appears only once in the entire book and the author described him as old, bearded, and very wise looking. He primarily teaches Bokononism in an unknown place on some unknown mountain. Occasionally he is asked for advice, but he himself is known for not taking his own advice. An example of this is at the end of the story when people ask him what to do, he responds by saying to kill yourself, but he himself does not die until the end of the book. He thinks very critically and it's as if he doesn't care what happens to the world around him, he adapts and moves on. I really don't think he would be a good friend since he really doesn't care about anything that goes on around him, he won't feel compassion towards anything on this planet, he only feels emotion at the end of the story to demonstrate how much he dislikes other religions. I personally really like this person even if he isn't friendly, he reminds me of my brother, he's almost like a reflection of myself when i really think about it, even though this book was written in the late "60s". The way Bokonon thinks is quite unique, he believes certain things from just plain thinking about it from what i can tell.