Preview

The Catbird Seat

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1171 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Catbird Seat
SHORT STORY ELEMENTS SHEET:

Characters:

• The main characters are Mr. Martin and Mrs. Ulgine Barrows. • Mr. Martin is the protagonist as he is shown as the “hero”. His character is shown as a positive character. The fact that he has stayed at the company for 22 years and everybody likes him makes him a protagonist. Mrs. Barrows is always taunting Mr. Martin. She is annoying and always goes against Mr. Martin, the protagonist, makes her an antagonist. • Mr. Martin has been working in the company for twenty two years. He does not smoke or drink. Mrs. Marrows is also an employee of the company but she goes against everything Mr. Martin has done by giving comments. • Mr. Martin wants Mrs. Barrows out of his company or at least out of his department. Mr. Barrows wants to bring some changes to Mr. Martin’s department. • Mr. Martin is a short, calm and small man, quite opposite of the stereotype we have of men. On the other side, Mrs. Barrows has manly characteristics – bold, tough, and rude. She is also very annoying and not very smart. Both characters are opposite of the stereotypes we have of men and women in our society. • Mr. Martin is a dynamic and round character. Mrs. Barrows is a static and flat character.

Setting:

• The story takes in Broadway. The company and Ms. Barrows house is especially emphasized. This story creates an image of an “office” world. The office setting is appropriate as Mr. Martin and Mrs. Barrows are the employees of the same company. The story seems to have taken place around 1940s or 1950s.

Plot:

• Mr. Martin had been working in the company for 22 years. Mrs. Barrows also joins the same company. She does not like what was happening in Mr. Martin’s department, so she would taunt Mr. Martin about it. Mr. Martin did not like that. He wanted to get rid of Mrs. Barrows from the company or at least from the department. He plans to murder her at her house. But he decides against it. He chooses

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cja324

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Officer Rook is designated to write the report and deliver it to the prosecutor’s office. P. Ross Acute is the issuing deputy district attorney. He is reviewing this police report to decide whether to file charges against the husband. The report accurately depicts the facts. While he is reviewing the report, Officer Nixon comes into his office.…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    On February 7th he reported to a call about a dispute at the Osborne’s household. When he arrived he notice Mrs. Osborne very upset and had a gash to her forehead. He said Mrs. Osborne was silent and said she was okay. Even though it did not look like she was.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Caulder's Case Summary

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page

    R/s he lives in the home with his grandmother and he takes care of her. R/s he was taking his grandmother to see Dr. Freel and his grandmother was talking medication for her diabetes. R/s Michael changed Ms. Caulder’s doctor to Dr. Brown and he stopped the diabetes medication. R/s Michael never comes to the house. R/s Michael is not contributing to the house repairs. R/s Ms. Caulder receives meals every two weeks from Mom’s Meals.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Monique is the supervisor at the regulatory review commissions’ operations centre. She is currently reviewing Brian, a clerk. The Regulatory Review Commissions is a Government department. Brian Coffey and his supervisor Monique Ricard work with a small group of people in the operations centre. Brian has worked under Monique for two months and he has three weeks left on his probation period. Looking over his file Monique is contemplating what she can do about Brian’s work ethic and how to deal with his inappropriate behaviour in the work place.…

    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. Margot, the protagonist, is a very passive and introverted girl, who is also very frail, delicate, and pale. (William and) the children, the antagonists, are a rambunctious bunch of nine-year-olds, who tease on Margot for being slightly different.…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mr. Martin was getting stiffen with the difficultness of trying to figure out what the woman was referring to with the questions she was asking until a fellow employee explained it…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    3. Find and copy down the quotations which show how Crooks reacts to the threats of Curley’s wife. What exactly is she threatening, and why does Crooks react in the way he does?…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The characters on the other hand is very different matter itself. Martine Murray has developed each characters personality thoroughly.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shoe Store Incident

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Once she entered the shoe store, Imelda adamantly requested that a female salesperson assist her with purchasing shoes. Bob clarified to Imelda that Tom would be the salesperson who assisting her. Imelda indicated that she would buy more shoes if a female salesperson assisted her. Bob lamentably let Imelda know that the company has a stringent plan stating that the salespersons need to rotate positions and that day just happened to be Tom’s day to provide customer service. Unfortunately, Bob realizes the store may lose additional purchases because of the decision to have Tom assist Imelda. Nevertheless, Bob fervently believes that the company policy is a resolute guideline to adhere to, and he should not deviate from it.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essat the Catbird Seat

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mr. Martin’s behavior is seen early in the story when he takes it upon himself to permanently get rid of Mrs. Barrows after only knowing her for a couple of years. Mr. Martin decides that it is his obligation to “rub out” (Thurber 156) her because she was nothing but an error. For a week Mr. Martin planned the perfect way to get her out of the way call without raising suspicion. Apart from being a man with cold blood, Mr. Martin was a man who thought that a woman should not have a better job than a man. Mr. Martin was a man who always follows the routine and he was probably raised to believe that a woman was inferior to men. When Mr. Martin realized that a woman without his experience and talent was his new superior he thought the only way that a woman could have the…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every story has a main character that introduces change called the protagonist. In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, it is made clear that Sylvia is the protagonist. Not every story has an antagonist, a character with views that stand in opposition of the main character of the story, but in “The Lesson” Miss Moore can be clearly seen filling that position. Throughout the story both Sylvia’s and Miss Moore’s conflicting ideals passively clash on several occasions revealing their individual complexities. Miss Moore is the most complex of the two.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Child Called It

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Part one: Character Identification: Describe who the characters are and what relationship they share with the main character.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My Lifr

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are different types of characters. Some are protagonists, and some are antagonists. Two antagonists, General Zaroff from "The Most Dangerous Game" and the king from, "The Lady or the Tiger?", can both be compared.These two characters are similar yet different in their nature, or personality, actions, and attitudes. These characters are both similar and different at the same time.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Catbird Seat

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Catbird Seat to me was a somewhat intriguing story that is sure to make you ponder after reading it. However, the end left me confused, in the beginning, it started off good, and I understood the plot and the characters so far. With the story written in third person point of view, I like how the author didn’t give too much information based on the characters thoughts. From the thoughts, I understood somewhat of what was going on, but I didn’t know everything and was still puzzled, so it made me want to keep on reading. In the beginning of the story, I thought Mr. Martin was a boring, ordinary person that lives a redundant lifestyle. He had a regular routine that he followed every day. Mr. Martin doesn’t drink or smoke and he had never drunk anything stronger than ginger ale. I would never have thought he would ever try something daring or anything out if his comfort zone. Because of this, I was surprised when he actually drank and smoked in Mrs. Barrows’ house. Thurber gave me quite a shock with that, and I liked how he changed Mr. Martin’s character, giving his readers a surprise. Just when I thought I had Mr. Martin all figured out, the author throws something else in the mix changing my viewpoint on Mr. Martin.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Two Fishermen

    • 407 Words
    • 1 Page

    Smith, in many ways attracts our attention. Although he is a mild, harmless looking little guy, he performs a very difficult job (hanging) without shame. ¡°Somebody¡¯s got to do my job. There¡®s got to be a hangman¡± ¡° the job hasn¡¯t been so disagreeable¡±. From the quotation we see that Smith loves his job no matter how other people say about it. Michael, however, he doesn¡¯t appreciate his own job very much even it¡¯s a nice one. ¡°But it¡¯s nothing like a first-class city paper and I don¡¯t expect to be working on it long. I want to get a reporter¡¯s job on a city paper.¡± Michael, on the other hand is kind of discrimination against Smith¡¯s job. ¡°If you took another job, you and your wife could probably go fishing together.¡± ¡°I just meant that if it was such disagreeable work, Smitty.¡± As we see here, Michael¡¯s attitude toward to Smitty¡¯s job could relate to our real life. In our society, there are many difficult jobs. People don¡¯t like them because they are dirty or dangerous, but if we don¡¯t go to do, then who will do them for us? As a victim, Smith in the end is almost killed by the angry crowd. ¡°One small stone hit him on the head. Blood trickled from the side of his head as he looked around helplessly at all the angry people.¡± I wonder that is Smith responsible for the unfair judgment of hangingThomas Delaney? Why the town people get so angry with him? I think Smith didn¡¯t do anything wrong, and hanging Thomas is just the duty of his job. It is also an irony of the story, as we see what…

    • 407 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays