The short story “Cat Person,” by Kristen Roupenian tells a story about how a young college student falls into a flirtation with an older man. The story, which has since sparked conversations about gender, sex privilege, and prejudice, describes an apprehensive romance between two characters with conflicting ideas about the others life. The main character is described through an internal monologue about their own and the antagonist’s behavior and beliefs.
Setting
The short story “Cat Person,” appeared in the New Yorker last year 2017 and quickly gained recognition based on the relatable content it covers. The setting of the story takes place over quite sometime between the periods the two main characters meet to the end of the story. The course of the story takes place between a meet at a movie store, a time when the characters are far apart and converse, to the time they meet and go for a date and the aftermath of the date. The interactions between the characters happen in winter, and their meetings mostly happen during the night. The development of the story happens in real-time except the parts where a character remembers the past or imagines the future. The social setting within the story encompasses a family, a social gathering where people meet for drinks and fun, friendships, and social interaction through messaging.
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The course of the story affects the language association between the characters in that; at first, they get along quite well given they are getting to know each other. After a while, the language association between them changes where they think negative of the other based on the little history they know about each other. Toward the end, the language association between them is mostly covered in thought where one prefers not to speak aloud but has some judgment for the other. The atmosphere of the story changes from friendly in the beginning, to worry-stricken right up there in the middle to disgust in the end. The story begins with two people trying to conjure up a friendship. The atmosphere then between the characters is calm and relaxed. Sometime later, the atmosphere in the story changes to worry where one character is described to ponder whether the other is a murderer. During their night encounter, the antagonist objectifies the main character, which makes them think the events leading up to the night were their life’s worst decision. Towards the end of the narrative, the atmosphere is avoidance between the two parties.
Characterization
The story focuses on two central characters throughout the story. The protagonist of the story is Margot, a 20-year-old college student who gradually falls into a flirtation with a man named Robert. In the story, Robert can be understood as the antagonist. The interactions between the Margot and other characters in the story are for the better part described through dialogue. They converse using common dialect. The author describes the characters using physical appearances, elaborates their thoughts, and explains how they interact and feel towards others. The author through one character describes the features of the other character.
The two main characters change throughout the story. From the inception, Margot is described as a flirt when she is working as a concession-stand girl. Robert initially is described as cute and somewhat cool. After a while, Margot who was initially a flirt starts to develop a crush for Robert. After the dynamics with Margot’s step-dad questioning thing, Robert tends to avoid her for some reason. When they eventually meet the association between them is quite fluid with each questioning the other’s perception of them? The other characters talked about in the story have no significant impact given they provide little input to the main characters and therefore remain somewhat static. From the character development in the story, one can deduce that Margot is a naïve given her heedless attention to her inner feelings. She is oblivious of what goes around her as evidenced by her lack of concern to the events in her life. She is too understanding in the sense that she feels obliged to give in to Roberts advances for the “kind” way he has treated her. Robert, on the other hand, is controlling seeing as Margot is way younger than her. What he says goes. He takes her to movie I a different place other than where she is used to, selects a movie without asking her and refuses to go to the local establishment where young students gather.
The main characters of the story are not wholly convincing given the conflicting actions between their thoughts and conduct. For instance, Margot feels like she should stop the advances of Robert when they are at his place after their date, but does or says nothing so that she cannot hurt him at her peril. Robert is not entirely realistic. He undermines Margot a lot and then, in the end, says he truly loved her. He contradicts this statement immediately when he calls her a ‘whore.’ Margot is repulsed by Robert’s potbelly with hair when he removes his clothes. This is a form of stereotyping where people with large bellies are seen as repulsive. Robert in his part as well thinks Margot is a virgin given her age or inexperience.
Plot and Structure
The plot of the story is centered on the apprehensive romance of Margot towards Robert. The most significant event in the story is the sequence of events following the night they go for a movie date and then drinks before heading to Robert’s house. On the way to their movie date, Margot wonders if he is going to murder her and surprisingly, he assures her he is not going to harm her. After the movie, when they decide to get drinks, Robert takes her to a bar she has never been and belittles her at the entrance. They then go to another bar where they get to discuss a lot more about their interests. They then head over to Robert’s house definitely for sex. When they get there, Margot is again plagued with the idea that Robert could be a murderer and this was not even his house. They go to the bedroom, and Robert undresses. Margot is repulsed by the sight of his body and tries to avoid showing her disinterest by taking whiskey. After sex, she is still quite afraid of him and requests her to leave. She is taken back to her dorm room without being murdered.
The plot of the story is designed linearly and chronologically in that it flows from the beginning when the two characters meet to the end when they no longer talk to each other. However, in some instances, it employs non-linear elements such as flashback and suspense. Robert when confessing his feelings to her has a flashback about the time when Margot was away on holiday, about how she could have been hooking up with other people her age and how it worried him. At the end of the story, although the author has explored the major plot events, we are still left in suspense about what happens next. The plot is believable given it describes the emotions and thoughts of the characters in their interactions. It is realistic in the sense that everything covered depicts many people’s lifestyle and interactions with others. It is a fictional representation of facts and behavior observed in society.
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator of the story through the voice of a second person speaks through the protagonist of the story, Margot. The narrator is not an all-knowing persona who knows what each character is doing but instead describes them through the point of view of Margot. The narrator focuses on the apprehensive romance that was budding between the two characters and later failed. The idea to hang onto the destructive relationship was so as not to hurt the other’s feelings. For Margot, it seemed cruel to blatantly end the relationship if at all it was a relationship.
Conflict
The central conflict in the story arises due to the lack of proper communication. The characters are left to ponder their thoughts about the shortcomings of the other. The protagonists fail to terminate the potentially destructive relationship based on the idea that it would be cruel. There is also an internal conflict within the protagonist about her life choices. She thinks that the decision to give in to the antagonist is the greatest mistake of her life. She goes on to create an imagined future boyfriend with whom she could share her current experiences, and they would laugh about it. Other external conflicts caused by the external surroundings that play into the character’s life include the bouncer at the bar who refuses her entry, and the antagonist who is oblivious of her predicament makes the situation worse. The other source of external conflict is Margot’s roommate who terminates her relationship with Robert for her, without her consent. The friends, in the end, could also play into external conflict having shielded her from Robert, who saw her and felt jealous of Albert, the friend to the extent of calling her a whore.
Climax
The story takes a sharp turn immediately after the sexual encounter between the characters. Repulsed by Robert, Margot avoids him after getting back to her place and fails to engage in even the smallest talk. It takes the action of her roommate to end the relationship.
