Free Essay

Letter to a Cat

In:

Submitted By XDreamkeeper
Words 756
Pages 4
Essay – Letter to a cat
Letter to a cat was written by the author Sheelagh Morris and published in 1997.
The story’s main theme is loneliness: “`Colonel do you think it acceptable practice to ask only the useful and or decorative to your wedding?´ June swung around in her chair. `Mother, would you stop pretending you’re talking to the cat.´” (ll.12-14, p.1), this quote catches the main theme loneliness well as she began to talk to the cat Colonel instead of her husband and daughter.
Norma does not feel comfortable at home and wants to get out of there. Then she meets Arthur and he cares about her, which she’s not used to: “It was nice to be looked after” (l.2, p.2) She was feeling looked after when Arthur stopped the bleeding of her foot, which she clearly not feels at home.
As a woman in her forties and highly overweight she’s not use to being cared about, at home she doesn’t get a lot of attention, as we can see in the introduction. Her daughter and husband ignore her and talk to her in a condescending way: “June and Daragh did not look up from the newspapers.”(l.80, p.2) It shows that they don’t even care if she said something or not.
At the beginning of the text she has a conversation with her family. It ends in a negative way and she says she is going for a walk. Her way of slamming the door on her way out: “’I am going for a walk,’ she shouted from the hall. ‘There’s shepherd’s pie in the fridge.’ She slammed the door of number 42 behind her.” (l.20, p.1) This indicates that she is angry and just wants to get out of there, and wants them to know that.
When Norma leaves for a walk at the beach she slices her foot and meets a man named Arthur. He appears as a savior: “A shadow fell across her looking up, she saw a thin gentlemen looking over her… Norma allowed him to take her foot in his bony hand.” (l.27-30,p.1) The way it is written “a shadow fell across her” (l.27.p1) it symbolizes something mysterious. It’s like something came out of the blue to help her. Arthur helps our main character Norma and finally she feels comfortable and looked after.
She’s sitting in a chair in his hut while he served her drinks and treated her foot damage healthy and stopped the bleeding. Another thing that backs this claim is that he is her savior, is that she meets Arthur right after she bleeds. He also tells her after a while that she live with him, if she wants.
As she thought about Arthur’s offer she wanted to set June and Daragh on a test: “’How do I look?’ She whirled into the sitting-room at coffee time, dressed in the one remaining exiled kaftan. June and Daragh did not at first look up from their newspapers. When they did their comments were curt and to the point. ‘Ridiculous, I hope you’re not even thinking of wearing that tomorrow!’” (l.79 p.2) She gives them a chance to make her change her mind about moving over to Arthur, but as they didn’t even look up from the newspapers and June said it’s ridiculous, she decided to move and leave everything behind her. When she decides to write a letter she wrote the letter to her cat Colonel which really backs the claim that she did not have anybody else than her cat to talk to.

Through the analysis, it became evident, that the main theme of the essay is loneliness. Norma used to talk to the cat Colonel, which clearly supports the claim, that she had no one to talk with. As Norma meets Arthur her life changes to better. He takes care of her, and acts as her savior. The sensation of being looked after is something that Norma hasn’t felt before she meets Arthur.
Norma decides to live with Arthur instead of her husband and daughter. She feels appreciated and is ready to leave everything to live with him, but she wanted to give Daragh and June a last chance, so she sets them on a test. They fail and Norma decides to live with Arthur instead. She writes a letter to her cat, as Colonel is the one she has talked to and takes care of.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Letter to a Cat

...I have recently read an article about how every 3. Danish person has had a conflict with another family member, which has lead to a break-up between them. Every 10. Of these break-up are permanent. Lars Dencik a family researcher from RUC, says that the reason why we see an increasing number of these family breaches, is because we are not as economical depended on each other, as we were a while back. Our economical independence has also increased the numbers of divorces. Let alone in 2014 there were nearly 20.000 divorces in Denmark. 4 years ago that number was about 14.000. “Letter to a cat” is set mostly, at a house near the beach, in what I would guess is England, due to that Norma is reading “Colonel Blimp”. Norma is married to Daragh and together they have June as their only child. Norma is seems to be doing all the cooking in the house, since she tells June and Daragh where the food is when she goes for a walk (P1. L 20). And in the ending when she leaves the family a note, including one phrase. “ You may miss me a little, especially at meal-times but you’ll survive very well without me.” They do not treat her like equal, but more like a maid. Another example of her family being mean to her is seen on (P1. L6-8) “Over the past few years, and more so since January when June joined the family firm of accountants, father and daughter treated Norma with, on good days, condescension and, on bad days, contempt. Most of the time they ignored her”. June is very disrespectful...

Words: 752 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Letter to a Cat

...the short story "Letter to a cat" from 1997, respect and care is one of the main themes. It takes respect and care to build a relationship. But disrespect and carelessness can equally tear a whole family apart. Our main character is Norma, a very obese Irish housewife with a life dominated by routine and pleasing her family. She is a lady with very few hobbies in life: reading English literature, collecting shells and sowing her own kaftans. She is a naive and loving person, who time and time again offers her family the opportunity of accepting her. This we also see towards the end of the short story, where she offers them one last time to accept her, and her beloved kaftans. But the reaction is unambiguous: "Ridiculous, I hope you're not even thinking of wearing that tomorrow!" As she rustled out of the room, Colonel Blimp gave her a long hard look and closed his eye. Not even the cat supports her, and this, you could say, is the last push she needs to take action into her own hands. Norma never gets any credit for her kind heart and compliant soul, and she is forced to put her few hobbies away in a little room, out of sight and out of the mind, by her husband and daughter. Her husband and daughter are hardly described in the short story. They express great contempt towards Norma. Even the daughter, June, who is to be married soon, talks down to the mother in a superior and disrespectful way: "Mother, would you stop pretending you're talking to the cat." In the short...

Words: 842 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Letter to a Cat

...Dogma Essay ver. 1.1 In this essay you must make an analysis and interpretation of the enclosed text: Julia Blackburn’s short story “The Mermaid”, but there are some rules that you must obey: The structure of the essay: • 1 introductory paragraph (in which you ask a question, put up a theory or present your text). • 3 main paragraphs (in which you discuss various aspects of the text. Each paragraph must contain a short quotation from the text) • 1 conclusive paragraph (in which you sum your findings and put them in relation to your introductory paragraph) Length: 2 pages (with double spacing) – no more, no less. Criteria for marking: 1. Good, error-free language 2. The conclusive paragraph “answers” the introductory paragraph. 3. Coherence from one paragraph to the next. Julia Blackburn, The Mermaid (A British short story published in 1998.) The man was still there poised in indecision and staring at the thing which lay heaped at his feet. I saw then that it was not a human corpse, or the trunk of a tree, or a bundle of sail that he had found, but a mermaid. She was lying face down, her body twisted into a loose curl, her hair matted with scraps of seaweed. The year was fourteen hundred and ten and it was very early in the morning with the sun pushing its way gently through a covering of mist that floated aimlessly over the land and the water. The man had never seen a mermaid before except for the one carved in stone...

Words: 1301 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Lab 1

...NT1430 Linux Administration LAB 4 vi -- again On your linux server enter the following in the command line: root@servername: cd /opt root@servername: ls -la 1) Write what files exist in your directory. root@servername: touch sysinfo root@servername: ls -la 2) Write what files exist in your directory. 3) What are the permissions on the file you have just created? root@servername: chmod 755 sysinfo root@servername: ls -la 4) What are the permissions on the file you have just created? 5) What have you just done? Practical Mysystem root@servername: vi mysystem Now to enter into insert mode (edit mode) hit [i] to exit back into command mode hit [Esc] Now while you are in INSERT MODE type the following, be careful of all characters and typos. #!/bin/bash clear printf "This is information provided by mysystem.sh. Program starts now.\n" printf "Hello, $USER.\n\n" printf "Today's date is `date`, this is week `date +"%V"`.\n\n" printf "These users are currently connected:\n" w | cut -d " " -f 1 - | grep -v USER | sort -u printf "\n" printf "This is `uname -s` running on a `uname -m` processor.\n\n" printf "This is the uptime information:\n" uptime printf "\n" printf "That's all folks!\n" To end and save the file enter the following: [Esc] [:] You will exit Insert Mode and enter into Command Mode then save and exit vi: wq [Enter] Now run the script. root@servername: chmod 755 mysystem root@servername: ./mysystem Print a screen shot of the results. sysinfo root@servername:...

Words: 1450 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Chinese Strategies

...house. This annoyed the Samurai to no end so he went to the village to buy a cat. A street vendor sold him a cat that he said would catch the rat and indeed the cat looked trim and fit. But the rat was even quicker than the cat and after a week with no success the Samurai returned the cat. This time the vendor pulled out a large and grizzled cat and guaranteed that no rat could escape this master mouser. The rat knew enough to stay clear of this tough alley cat, but when the cat slept, the rat ran about. Half the day the rat would hide, but the other half he again had the run of the place. The Samurai brought the cat back to the vendor who shook his head in despair saying he had given the Samurai his best cat and there was nothing more he could do. Returning home with his money, the Samurai happened upon a monk and sought his advice. After hearing the Samurai's story the monk offered him the services of the cat that lived in the temple. The cat was old and fat and he scarcely seemed to notice when he was carried away by the doubtful Samurai. For two weeks the cat did little more than sleep all day and night. The Samurai wanted to give the cat back to the temple but the monk insisted he keep him a while longer assuring him the rat's days were close to an end. The rat became accustomed to the presence of the lazy old cat and was soon up to his old tricks even, on occasion, brazenly dancing around the old cat as he slept. Then one day,...

Words: 1085 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Jasonsnan

...CAT 3 Overview This task is designed to allow students to use tools in Microsoft Word in order to create a business letter. Students will need to use persuasive language in order to convince the local council why the theme park should be built here. Your letter needs to cover the following points - An introduction to who you are and your park building company ( you can make up fake awards that you have won. - Outline what the park is going to be and some of the potential attractions you would like to build - Outline the advantages of building your park in this area - Outline the potential problems and how you intend to overcome them You need to make sure that your letter follows the correct outline of a business letter How long will you need? This will be due at the end of week 9 What you need to do |Tasks |Due dates | |Collect teacher notes | | |Create Brainstorm the potential advantages and disadvantages to the park |Week 8 | |Create a persuasive business letter |Week 9 ...

Words: 440 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Mr Man

...Animal Jokes Q: Why did the cat go to Minnesota? A: To get a mini soda! ———- Q: Where do orcas hear music? A: Orca-stras! ———- Q: Why did the cow cross the road? A: To get to the udder side. ———- Q: What do you call a fish without an eye? A: Fsh! ———- Q: What do you do if your dog chews a dictionary? A: Take the words out of his mouth! ———- Q: What do you call a cold dog sitting on a bunny? A: A chili dog on a bun. ———- Q: Why do fish live in salt water? A: Because pepper makes them sneeze! ———- Q: Where do mice park their boats? A: At the hickory dickory dock. ———- Q: Where did the sheep go on vacation? A: The baaaahamas ———- Q: What do you call a thieving alligator? A: A crookodile ———- Q: What goes tick-tock, bow-wow, tick-tock, bow-wow? A: A watch dog. ———- Q: What do you call a cow that eats your grass? A: A lawn moo-er. ———- Q: What do you call a girl with a frog on her head? A: Lilly. ———- Q: How does a dog stop a video? A: He presses the paws button. ———- Q: Why do cows go to New York? A: To see the moosicals! ———- Q: What do you call lending money to a bison? A: A buff-a-loan ———- Q: What is the snake’s favorite subject? A: Hiss-story ———- Q: What is black ,white and red all over? A: A sunburnt penguin! ———- Q: Why does a dog wag its tail? A: Because there’s no one else to wag it for him. ———- Q: What is a cat’s favorite movie? A: The sound of Mew-sic! ———- Q: How do you make a goldfish old? A: Take away the...

Words: 4101 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

It250 Chapter 2 Assignment

... ASSIGNMENT 3.1 PAGE 184 3. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GIVE THE FOLLOWING COMMNADS IF THE FILE NAMED DONE ALREADY EXISTS? $ cp to_do done $ mv to_do done ANWSER: cp - copy files and directories mv - move (rename) files. You would just basically overwrite the file. 4. HOW CAN YOU FIND OUT WHICH UTILITIES ARE AVAILABLE ON YOUR SYSTEM FOR EDITING FILES ? WHICH UTILITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR EDITING ON YOUR SYSTEM? ANWSER: You have to use the 'which or whereis' utility. Which locates utilities by displaying the full pathname of the file for the utility. The whereis utility searches for files related to a utility looking in a standard location instead of using your search path. PAGE 185 13. TRY GIVING THESE TWO COMMANDS: $ echo cat $ cat echo EXPLAIN THE DIFFRENCES BETWEEN THEM. ANWSER: echo...

Words: 1961 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Akij

...English 1st  Paper Comprehensions  1. Oxygen and air pressure are ———————————- enjoyable flight. 2.      The ethnic people in Bangladesh ———————————- in Mymensingh. 3.      Bangladeshi cuisine —————————– people. 4.      River gypsies in Bangladesh ———————— in some areas. 5.      Nakshi Katha ———————————— on them. 6.      Communication of ideas is at ————————- changed our life. 7.      River gypsies are ———————- special power. 8.      Ms Subarna shaha ——————————————- 9.      The word ‘hygiene’ means —————————- 10.  At the farthest corner ———————— in nature. 11.  A six year-old boy from ——————– on our website. 12.  With only 2,500 —————————- in 2012. 13.  Human beings conquered ——————– a major accident. 14.  The Falcon hypersonic —————— days to come. 15.  Most of these ethnic ——————– for them. Paragarph A rainy day** Load Shedding *** Traffic jam*** Mobile phone* Tea stall* Favorite Teacher*** Book fair*** The School Magazine** A day lobourer/ Farmer*** Our national flag*** How to become a good students*** How to learn English well** How to make a cup of tea How to make a garden** A street Hawker/Beggar** STORIES 1.  Once upon a time there was a farmer who had a wonderful goose.  Every morning she laid —————————————-.JSC 1 *** 2.  Once in a very hot day a fox came to a vineyard where he saw some grapes. The grapes were ripe and ———————————-.JSC 11*** 3.  There lived a wood cutter in a village. One day he —————————–.*** 4.  A farmer had three...

Words: 712 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Experimental Study

...Word Formulation 1 Effects of the Presence of Flashcards with Jumbled Letters to the Word Formulation of Grade 3 Pupils in Sta. Cruz Elementary School, Sto. Tomas, Batangas Joyce Trissia B. Mendoza Aliza Joana D. Cuenca PSY 106, BS Psychology 321 Mrs. Marjorie S. Villa Word Formulation 2 Abstract This experiment looked at the Effects of the Presence of Flashcards with Jumbled Letters to the Word Formulation. The participants has a total population of 48 Grade 3 pupils at Sta. Cruz Elementary School in Sto. Tomas, Batangas. The population is divided into two groups by randomization: 24 pupils in the control group and 24 pupils in the experimental group since the researchers used the between subjects design. The control group received the normal way of giving spelling activity, the oral dictation of words. The experimental group received also the oral dictation of words but they are also shown flashcards with jumbled letters of the words that are being spelled. The computed value of t was – 1.7 and is less than the tabular value, 2.021 with df of 46 and the α of .05. This means that the presence of flashcards with jumbled letters has no significant effect on the word formulation of Grade 3 pupils. Word Formulation 3 Methodology This experiment was conducted at Sta. Cruz Elementary School in Sta. Cruz, Sto. Tomas, Batangas. The subjects of the experiment were taken from the total population of 48 pupils of Grade 3. They were randomly divided into two...

Words: 3022 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

International Business

...Business Law Section A a) This case is under the incapacity-mentally unsound and intoxicated persons. Incapacity is someone that unable to manage the physical or mental of others’ events. According to Contract Law, Incapability, “ As the mentally unsound and intoxicated persons; if the person suffering from the disability is incapable of understanding the nature of the contract, the other party knows or ought to know it, and the contract is voidable.” The plaintiff was Arthur’s guardian and the defendant was Katrina. In this case Arthur sold the land to Katrina as $5000. Arthur was minor and he was not in clear mental but he was looking good. So Katrina bought the land. After that, Arthur’s guardian knew about the deal and complained to invalidate the contract and kept the land back. However the guardian of Arthur’s will win this trial. Because the guardian could proof Arthur was insane. That’s why Katrina might give back the land and the Arthur might pay back $5000 to Katrina. There was a similar case was in 1989; Che Som bet Yip v Maha Pte Ltd. In this case, the third plaintiff who is mentally unsound executive pledged to banks, the court held that, in this case, the bank should have known of his disability, so the mortgage was shelved. b) Yes, Kristin has the right not to sell to lan. This case is counter offer. Counter offer kills the first offer. The offeror is Kristin and Lan is offeree in the first offer but Lan didn’t agree about $5000 land and bargain to...

Words: 2493 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Banking Sector Refo

...kept at the premises of concerned RRB offices, till the closing date. For candidates residing in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Lahaul & Spiti districts and Pangi sub-division of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshwadeep islands and for candidates residing abroad, the closing date for receipt of applications by posts will be 26.06.2012 up to 17.30 Hrs. Candidates Please Note: 1) Stages of Exam. :a) Common Preliminary Examination (i.e. stage I) for all the notified categories. b) Main (Second stage) Exam for Cat No. 1&2 - followed by Verification of documents. c) Main (Second stage) Exam for Cat No. 3&4 – followed by verification of documents. d) Main (Second stage) Exam for Cat. No. 5&6, qualifying typing test followed by Verification of documents. e) Main (Second stage) Exam for Cat No.7&8, aptitude test followed by Verification of documents. 2) Preliminary Examination (i.e. stage I) will be...

Words: 11122 - Pages: 45

Free Essay

Lesson Plan

... |Materials and Resources: | |Reading: |-Reading: Looking Closely At Nature |Reading: | |The students will understand the sound |-Math: Data Analysis/Graphing |Pearsonsuccess.net | |and shape of letter I. The student will |-Science: Capacity |Big book | |understand how to blend words based on |-Social Studies: Important People |Readers/Writers Notebooks | |letter sounds. The student will | |Sound spelling cards | |understand story elements. The student | |Paper/pencils/glue/scissors/crayons | |will understand and generate nouns using |...

Words: 3677 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Reading Literacy Project

...Reading Assessment I once again chose a child to work with that I am familiar with. The student is a male child of Hispanic decent. The student comes from a household which is considered middle class and both parents that reside in the household are working parents. The mother is a college graduate and works in the education field as a high school teacher. The father did not attend college and is the head of the maintenance department at a local area school district. Both of the child’s parents have worked since the child was born and the child stayed with grandparents or at a daycare facility until the child reached the age to begin school. The child has a younger brother who will begin school the next school year. In talking with the parents the feeling was the grandparents treated the child very well and read to the child on a daily basis when the child was in the grandparents care and the child has a great love for school and strives to be the very best in his class. The male child is about to turn seven years old and is in the first grade. The child attends a school that the mother and father are not employed and the grandparents are responsible for picking the child up after the school day is complete. The parents are very involved in the students’ school work and provide support for the student every evening when they are at home. In visiting with the student before we began our reading assessment I found the student to be very mindful and attentive. We discussed...

Words: 1214 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Hemingway's in Our Time- "Cat in the Rain"

...Hemingway’s In Our Time-“Cat in the Rain” 1.) Composition History A.) Notes about his life with Hadley (Hemingway’s first wife) hint at a story ready to be written, but abruptly postponed. B.) Hemingway’s earliest notes for “Cat in the Rain” were sketched in late February 1923 at Rapallo, the setting of the story. C.) After visiting Ezra Pound in Chambry-Sur- Montreux, Hemingway finished four pages of a manuscript, giving up in the process, labeling it as “False start Rapallo story possible Fascito Story.” D.) The manuscript establishes elements found in his finished product, such as the hotel, train trip from Genoa, and gives a nickname to the wife: Kitty. E.) A year later he returned to the story with another manuscript of ten pages and identified it as a “First Draft Original Manuscript/ March 1924/ E.M.H.” F.) This was followed by a nineteen-page titled manuscript with another rejected title, “The Poor Kitty.” G.) Finally, he titled the typescript “Cat in the Rain.” 2.) Publication History A.) It is likely the story was completed in March of 1924. B.) There is no immediate evidence that Hemingway submitted “Cat in the Rain” for publication. C.) The setting, the subject matter, and the partial indebtedness to T.S. Elliot are possible reasons why Hemingway didn’t want “Cat in the Rain” to be published right away. D.) Another possible reason why Hemingway didn’t publish “Cat in the Rain” right away was because he had his eye on “The Boni Liveright Book” first mentioned...

Words: 964 - Pages: 4