The Cat Flashcards
by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: The Cat
What is the Cat doing when the story opens?
He is crouched in a snowstorm on a mountainside, waiting with absolute patience to catch a rabbit hiding under pine boughs.
How does the Cat enter the cabin when the doors and windows are fastened?
He climbs a pine tree behind the house, enters through a small window under the eaves, and drops down through a trap to the room below.
Why is the master not in the cabin when the Cat returns with the rabbit?
He left in early fall for the village because the mountain cold "clutched at his vitals like a panther" -- he would not return until spring.
How does the stranger get into the cabin?
He batters the door with desperate, weak blows during a blizzard until the lock yields.
What does the Cat do when the stranger first sits by the fire?
He leaps onto the stranger’s lap carrying the rabbit, startling the man, then drags the rabbit to his feet as an offering.
How do the Cat and stranger share food through the winter?
The Cat hunts and divides everything equally between them, growing thin himself because the stranger is too ill to hunt.
What does the Cat bring home on the day he discovers the stranger is gone?
A rabbit, a partridge, and a mouse -- his most abundant haul of the story, but there is no one to share it with.
What biblical figure is the stranger compared to, and why?
He is called "an old wandering Ishmael among his kind" -- an outcast rejected by society, like Abraham’s son cast into the wilderness.
How does the stranger react to the Cat’s companionship?
He strokes the Cat’s back, sleeps with the Cat in his arms, and pats him while cooking -- showing physical affection the master never does.
What is the master’s social status in the village?
He is "an outcast among men for his poverty and lowly mystery of antecedents" -- poor and of unknown or shameful origins.
What does the master feel for the Cat, and how does it differ from the stranger’s feeling?
The master has "strong comradeship but not affection" and never pats the Cat, while the stranger shows tender physical warmth.
What evidence does the master find of the stranger’s winter stay?
A broken stove-lid, carpet tacked over a window, firewood and oil used up, and all his tobacco gone.
How does the Cat demonstrate generosity beyond what survival requires?
He freely shares all his prey (except mice) with the stranger, growing thin himself -- he does not need the man to survive, but chooses to provide for him.
What does the story suggest about the limits of cross-species understanding?
Despite deep companionship between the Cat and both men, an "impassable barrier of silence" remains -- the Cat possesses knowledge he can never communicate.
How are all three characters connected by their social positions?
All three are outcasts -- the Cat is feral, the stranger is an "Ishmael," and the master is shunned for his poverty -- yet they find companionship with each other.
What does the stranger’s silent departure suggest about human nature?
Despite months of intimate companionship and the Cat’s selfless care, the stranger leaves without warning or gratitude, contrasting human self-interest with the Cat’s loyalty.
What point of view does Freeman use, and what effect does it create?
Third-person limited through the Cat’s perspective -- this makes the animal’s logic and emotions feel real while keeping human motives opaque.
How does Freeman anthropomorphize the Cat without making him cartoonish?
She gives him "absolute convictions" and sequential reasoning, but keeps his thoughts grounded in animal logic -- hunger, patience, expectation of routine.
What metaphor does Freeman use for the wind in the opening storm scene?
"Swooping down with furious white wings of snow like a flock of fierce eagles" -- the storm is compared to predatory birds attacking the valley.
What structural irony exists in the Cat’s relationship with the two men?
The stranger whom the Cat loves most disappears, while the master who shows less affection is the one who stays -- loyalty is not always reciprocated.
What does "imperturbable" mean in the opening line about the Cat?
Unable to be disturbed or upset -- the Cat sits calmly in the snowstorm, unfazed despite being covered in ice.
What does "famished" tell us about the Cat’s condition?
Extremely hungry, nearly starving -- he has gone days without catching prey because the bitter weather has kept his quarry hidden.
What does "self-gratulation" mean when the stranger finds the lamp?
Self-congratulation or private satisfaction -- the man grunts with relief at finding oil for light in the dark cabin.
What does Freeman mean by calling the Cat "this little, unswerving, living patience and power under a little coat of grey fur"?
She elevates the Cat to something heroic -- a small creature whose persistence and determination are unconquered even by the immense storm around him.
What is the "cry of the animal for human companionship which is one of the sad notes of the world"?
The Cat’s call when he returns to find the stranger gone -- Freeman frames the animal’s grief as a universal, heartbreaking sound.
What "impassable barrier" does the final line describe?
The barrier of silence between man and beast -- the Cat knows what happened during the winter but can never tell his master.