“ | The castle was built according to the wish of Tum-bumwa, Emperor of San Lorenzo, a demented man, an escaped slave. Tum-bumwa was said to have found its design in a child's picture book. A gory book it must have been. | „ |
~ Jonah reflecting on the madness and viciousness of Tum-bumwa. |
Tum-bumwa is a posthumous antagonist in Kurt Vonnegut's 1963 novel Cat's Cradle and its calypso musical adaptation.
He was a maniacal former slave who took over a British ship and ran it ashore on the Caribbean island San Lorenzo in 1786, becoming its tyrannical emperor.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- While he was a former slave of the British Empire, this does not excuse his actions as he himself became a merciless slaver with the blood of hundreds on his hands.
- Despite there being no threat of attack on San Lorenzo, he forced thousands of men to construct vast fortifications on the Northern half of the island as well as a massive cathedral in his name. This led to 1400 people dying.
- Half of the men were simply worked to death, slaving away on the construction projects until their bodies could no longer take the strain.
- The other half were executed in public for "substandard zeal", i.e. simply not working hard enough to meet Tum-bumwa's insane standards.
- The workers lived in constant despair, as the protagonist noted, "dumb terror" was what motivated them to move stone piles so big.
What Prevents Her from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He is insufficiently characterized, as he's only described in a couple of historical paragraphs.