The Title: Why It Matters (Daniel)

The title, Cat's Cradle, is very important to the book. The title is the game that Felix Hoenikker, the character who created the atomic bomb, played with his children, and that he played as a child. It is important to the story because I believe that this game represents the bond that he created with his children, who are very important to the story.
It also represents the bonds between people in the world, who get intertwined in a web of manipulation and struggle. At one point, New Hoenikker (Felix's son) sees a painting that he thinks is a depiction and he then goes insane. The narrator comments that, the "...cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between hands." This shows that the cat's cradle, and what is does to people can make them go insane.
In the story, Felix plays with his children after we find out that he usually didn't pay much attention to them. This shows that all people have a different side then what we usually see. I think this is a big moral in the story, which also deals with issues of religion, social acceptability, and morality.