Cat's Cradle characters

Also known as Jonah

Appears from the start

The first-person narrator, a freelance writer who sets out to write about what notable Americans were doing on the day Hiroshima was bombed. His investigation of physicist Felix Hoenikker and the scientist's three children gradually becomes a much stranger inquiry into scientific responsibility, religion, and human efforts to impose meaning on events.

Appears from the start

The late Nobel Prize-winning physicist credited as one of the creators of the atomic bomb. Childlike, remote, and interested almost exclusively in whatever problem has caught his attention, he paid little notice to his family or to the consequences of his research. John's proposed book begins with an attempt to understand him through the memories of his children and former colleagues.

First appears in chapter 2

Felix Hoenikker's youngest child, a very short painter whose letters give John his first intimate view of the Hoenikker household. Newt remembers his father as emotionally absent and describes the children's confused attempts to make sense of the adult world around them.

First appears in chapter 7

Felix Hoenikker's elder daughter, a tall clarinetist who assumed responsibility for her younger brothers after their father's death. John initially knows her through Newt's account of an unhappy family in which she supplied much of the practical care.

First appears in chapter 9

The middle Hoenikker child, a technically gifted young man who disappeared after leaving his job at his father's laboratory. His unknown whereabouts make him an important loose end in John's investigation.

First appears in chapter 22

A senior scientist at the General Forge and Foundry Company who worked with Felix Hoenikker. Proud of pure research and impatient with demands that scientists accept moral responsibility for every use of their discoveries, he guides John through the laboratory and supplies an institutional view of Felix.

First appears in chapter 44

An American bicycle manufacturer traveling to San Lorenzo in hopes of moving his business there. He is brisk, patriotic, and eager to identify fellow Hoosiers wherever he goes; his wife Hazel quickly claims John as one of them.

First appears in chapter 44

H. Lowe Crosby's friendly, possessive wife. A native of Indiana, she treats any other Hoosier as a member of an instant extended family and takes a maternal interest in John during the flight to San Lorenzo.

Also known as Papa

First appears in chapter 49

The ailing president of San Lorenzo, a desperately poor Caribbean island. His government officially condemns Bokononism and maintains harsh public punishments, while presenting itself to visitors as a modernizing regime.

First appears in chapter 54

The adopted daughter of Papa Monzano, famed on San Lorenzo for her beauty and treated as a national symbol. She is promised to Frank Hoenikker but meets John with an ease and directness that immediately unsettle his plans and expectations.

First appears in chapter 57

An elderly humanitarian doctor who runs the House of Hope and Mercy in the Jungle on San Lorenzo. He devotes his remaining energy to treating the island's sick and regards his grand projects with a seasoned understanding of how little they can change.

First appears in chapter 58

Julian Castle's son, proprietor of San Lorenzo's Casa Mona hotel and author of a history of the island. Cynical and observant, he explains local institutions to John and is candid about the gap between their official presentation and daily reality.

First appears in chapter 63

The outlawed holy man of San Lorenzo and founder of Bokononism. His religion openly calls its teachings useful lies and offers ritual, companionship, and consoling patterns to people living under miserable conditions. Although the government threatens him with execution, his influence is everywhere on the island.