The Catbird Seat
“The Catbird Seat” Questions 1-9
1. Throughout the story suspense is aroused and maintained excellently. This is achieved by the character the author creates. Mr. Martin is characterized as a neat and cautious man, who never took a smoke or a drink in his life. Our suspense is aroused when the author states that it has been “a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows”. This arouses our suspense because we are told Mr. Martin is planning to murder this woman. The suspense is maintained with Mr. Martin’s thoughts. We as an audience are given his thoughts through the use of the 3rd person omniscient point of view. His thoughts are mostly on the issue on his dislike of Mrs. Barrows. Because of this, he is plotting her murder. As the story continues Mr. Martin carries out his evil plan, which he has been creating in his mind for the past week. When he enters her apartment, the plan fails because of the lack, in his opinion, of appropriate instruments for murder. The surprise comes when Mr. Martin acts out of character by smoking, drinking, speaking out against his employer and not murdering Mrs. Barrows. This was all part of his new plan which he thought of in her apartment. “The idea began to bloom, strange and wonderful”, as stated by the narrator. The ultimate surprise is seen when instead of killing her; he gets her fired due to her “mental breakdown”. His goal of ridding her of his life was finally completed.
2. The events of the story are mainly told through Mr. Erwin Martin’s consciousness. The story is told in the limited 3rd person point of view. This is clearly true because, as an audience we are only given the thoughts and feelings of one character. There are many examples to rectify claim of the point of view. One example is when Mr. Martin is walking home from work. In this situation the narrator knows what Erwin’s thoughts were by using the word “wondered”. The passage was “He wondered, as he did so, if they
1. Throughout the story suspense is aroused and maintained excellently. This is achieved by the character the author creates. Mr. Martin is characterized as a neat and cautious man, who never took a smoke or a drink in his life. Our suspense is aroused when the author states that it has been “a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows”. This arouses our suspense because we are told Mr. Martin is planning to murder this woman. The suspense is maintained with Mr. Martin’s thoughts. We as an audience are given his thoughts through the use of the 3rd person omniscient point of view. His thoughts are mostly on the issue on his dislike of Mrs. Barrows. Because of this, he is plotting her murder. As the story continues Mr. Martin carries out his evil plan, which he has been creating in his mind for the past week. When he enters her apartment, the plan fails because of the lack, in his opinion, of appropriate instruments for murder. The surprise comes when Mr. Martin acts out of character by smoking, drinking, speaking out against his employer and not murdering Mrs. Barrows. This was all part of his new plan which he thought of in her apartment. “The idea began to bloom, strange and wonderful”, as stated by the narrator. The ultimate surprise is seen when instead of killing her; he gets her fired due to her “mental breakdown”. His goal of ridding her of his life was finally completed.
2. The events of the story are mainly told through Mr. Erwin Martin’s consciousness. The story is told in the limited 3rd person point of view. This is clearly true because, as an audience we are only given the thoughts and feelings of one character. There are many examples to rectify claim of the point of view. One example is when Mr. Martin is walking home from work. In this situation the narrator knows what Erwin’s thoughts were by using the word “wondered”. The passage was “He wondered, as he did so, if they