After the Second World War, scientists were considered the heroes of modern society. The country's scientific laboratories were heavily mobilized and federal spending on research development was more than twenty times what it had been before the start of the war (Hampson). This company is behind Kurt Vonnegut's satirical masterpiece Cat's Cradle. In which Vonnegut's main character, Felix Hoenikker, is well known for being not only the father of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, but also a strange man in general. Hoenikker's later oddity may be explained by Asperger's syndrome, a disorder first recognized by Hans Asperger in the mid-1940s. Hans Asperger studied a group of boys exhibiting "autistic-like behaviors and difficulties in social and communication skills in boys who had normal intellectual and linguistic development. Many professionals believed that Asperger's syndrome was simply a milder form of autism and used the term 'high-functioning autism' to describe these individuals” (Autism Society). By modern standards, Dr. Hoenikker's actions and abilities as well as his creation of multiple weapons of mass destruction are attributed to Felix's Asperger's syndrome. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Although Asperger's syndrome was not a well-known phenomenon at the time Dr. Hoenikker was doing his work on more prevalent, even his boss, Dr. Breed knew that something was different about Hoenikker compared to all of his other employees. On the one hand, Breed knew he wasn't really responsible for Felix. When questioned by narrator John, Dr. Breed said that even he knew that he was Hoenikker's boss only "on paper" (21). He further described how difficult it was to control Felix by saying that "if [he] actually supervised Felix, [...] then [he is] ready now to take charge of the volcanoes, the tides and the migration birds and lemmings” (21). . And that Dr. Hoenikker “was a force of nature that no mortal could control” (21). The behaviors in this situation give readers reason to believe that Felix suffers from Asperger's syndrome due to his "rigid and inflexible behavior" (ASO) and his "problems understanding social cues" (ASO), which are both characteristics defined by the Asperger Society of Ontario. be markers for diagnosing a person with Asperger's. Matt Wallace supports the argument that Hoenikker's Asperger's is responsible for the destructive weapons Hoenikker created in his article Dr. Felix Hoenikker in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle: Good or Evil? Wallace builds his argument by creating reasonable doubt that Felix is ​​responsible for both the creation of the deadly weapons and the destruction they caused. Instead, Wallace insists that Dr. Hoenikker is more childish than evil, and that it is his childish wonder that makes him the immaculate scientist he is known to be. Additionally, Wallace points out that Felix is ​​incapable of being a responsible adult. He attributes Dr. Hoenikker's destruction to those who manipulated his childish mind which can be refocused by the suggestions of others. Essentially, Wallace defends Hoenikker and places the blame for the atomic bomb and Ice-Nine on those responsible for it and who used his childish mind to manipulate him. Although I believe Wallace's argument is valid, Ialso think it's missing. key points that could further validate it. First, with the theory that Hoenikker has Asperger's syndrome in mind, Felix would not have been able to understand the concept of manipulation because of his Asperger's syndrome. Therefore, if the other character manipulated Felix throughout his career, he would never know that he was being manipulated because nothing in his daily interactions had changed. Second, if Felix's counterparts, like Dr. Breed, knew he was mentally incompetent, they would have given him ethically questionable "tasks." By doing this, Race could all blame Felix for being mentally incompetent when things went wrong or the lab's ethics were called into question. Essentially, the people in Hoenikker's life are responsible for his actions and for failing to protect himself and others. Beyond not being able to understand the idea of ​​having a boss, Dr. Hoenikker is unable to adapt to both the new environment and the idea. to change your daily routine. When asked to work on the Manhattan Project, an honor that anyone else would accept regardless of the stipulations, Felix made it clear that he would not leave Ilium to work on the project. If they wanted Dr. Hoenikker to participate in the project, he would work wherever he wanted, however he wanted (9). This isn't the only time Dr. Hoenikker avoids change or socialization. Throughout the novel, John recounts times when Felix avoids contact with others. During a meeting with John, Ms. Faust remembers that “Felix ate alone […]in the cafeteria every day. It was a rule that no one was to sit with him, to interrupt his chain of thought” (49). His avoidance of change is again part of the spectrum of traits possessed by a person with Asperger's, as people with Asperger's are known to avoid social contact or events. Additionally, when Felix interacted with others, it was often reluctantly, he never initiated contact, and when others did make contact, it was not unusual for Felix to distance himself from them. As he did with his children, when he "poked his head out the window and watched Angela and [Newt] rolling around on the floor bawling, and Frank standing over them laughing. The old man stuck his head inside and never later asked what all the fuss was about. (17). If Felix could not interact with his children, his own flesh and blood, there is no other explanation than his lack of interaction with others, caused by his Asperger's syndrome. Besides avoiding change and social conflict, another trait embodied in both Felix Hoenikker and those previously diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome is being unable to understand their fillings and know how to emotionally connect with others. Aside from his wife dying after giving birth and being left with their three children, Félix's family life seems mundane. Their family goes on vacation to Cape Cod in summer and winter, they go to school and work, everything seems normal. That seems to be the key word. However, these things were not normal for Felix, on the contrary, he considered these particular things as a problem. When the characters talked about “intimate things, family things, romantic things” (54). Ms. Faust tells readers that "Dr. Hoenikker had all these things in his life, like any living being, but they were not the main thing for him" (54). His work and his science were what he considered “his main things.” (54) From this characterization, readers can establish that personal relationships.