Preview

The Character of Kath

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
412 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Character of Kath
The Character of Kath
Characters in a short story are designed by authors to create a particular theme. In the short story Kath and Mouse by Janet McNaughton, the character Kath is one who is perceived by readers to be not very nice. Readers would dislike her because she is haughty, malicious and insecure. First of all, Kath is haughty. Readers would believe Kath is haughty when Kevin asked Kath after she made fun of Helen’s backpack “Who made you queen of the world?” (McNaughton, 63), she casually replied, “It doesn’t matter, does it? I just am, so you better get used to it” (McNaughton, 63). Also, Kath would never let someone sit at her table without an invitation. Furthermore, as Kevin had narrated, Kath thought she was queen of her school and could do whatever she wanted to. In short, Kath is haughty. Secondly, Kath is malicious. Her malicious nature is shown whenever she bullies Helen. One example of this is when Kath ordered Helen outside to retrieve a soccer ball Kath kicked at her, and when Helen went outside, the door was closed on her, leaving her in the -10˚C weather. Additionally, Kevin had narrated “that winter, it seemed to be my job to prove you didn’t get vaporized or turned into a frog if you did something that made Kath angry” (McNaughton, 62), which shows that even Kath’s twin brother finds her malicious.

Lastly, Kath is insecure. Her insecurity is noticed by readers when she begged Kevin to play piano for her audition for the school’s talent show. But when she finally understood that Kevin wasn’t going to help her, she turned away and said, “Be that way then. It’s not as if I need you” (McNaughton, 66), which shows how weak Kath really is: she lies to cover her insecurity. Moreover, Kath was hurt whenever Christine would invite everyone but Kath to her parties, but Kath would always act like it didn’t matter to her. In addition to that, Kath responded so emotionally when Kevin refused to help her with her audition: “Kath looked like she

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Katsa is a Graceling, one of the rare people in her lad born with an extreme skill in a certain "category". These graces could be anything from land/sea navigation, advanced hearing, persuasive speaking, and even mind-reading and killing. It is very easy to tell someone is graced because of their specially colored eyes, one a different color than…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This quote is about Susanna Kaysen finally reading a book about her given diagnosis. I do believe she was given an accurate diagnosis and that it was necessary for her to spend some time in the mental hospital because she did try to kill herself even though she never admitted it. I disliked the fact that Kaysen had to be in the hospital for almost two years for her to actually try to get better. Instead of arguing and being upset about being in the hospital she should have gotten over it and started putting an effort to get herself out of there. In my opinion I don’t think Kaysen was in dire need to go to a mental hospital. Kaysen did take fifty aspirins, but I don’t believe she was intending to kill herself. She only took the aspirins because…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Juxtaposition is often used in this book of short stories. It is the fact of two things that are completely different and create a contrasting effect, being put together. Danticat uses the variety of stories to help break down the harsh Haitian life. In each story, each character is experiencing their own problems and trying to take things day by day. In the book Krik Krak, a series of short stories, the author Danicat utilizes juxtaposition to create strong and positive characters that in return create the overall sense of hope throughout the book. The specific examples that best display positive characters creating an overall sense of hope, are a girl separated from her boyfriend, a daughter with a positive mindset, and a father who tries to be strong for the sake of his family.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    TAYLOR- Ads R Us

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Taylor learned that, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover’. When she met Barrett, she thought that he was going to be a ‘boring bushland farmie (total bleeb). Running through her thoughts she also didn’t want her cousin to embarrass her in front of her school friends. Taylor also has a very rude personality and doesn’t understand other’s feelings. ‘Like I cared. ‘Barrett?’ I said, ‘Dumb name,’ (Page 4, Taylor). She is easily peer-pressured when it comes to popularity and being cool infront of her crush, Steve. ‘I’ll try a purple, Steve’ I…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Do you find your life hard? In Haiti most people have hard lives, but those people work hard and live their lives the way they can. How is it that living with all their daily struggles they manage to find the strength to keep working as hard as they do? In the book Krik Krak, a series of short stories, the author Danticat, utilizes juxtaposition to create realistic characters that in return create a hopeful mode throughout the book even in hopeless situations. The specific examples that best display realistic characters creating an overall sense of hopefulness are a mother who wants more for her son, a boy in search of safety, and a girl who looks for beauty even in ugly places.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Choke Character Analysis

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the first place, Nina is friendly. When Nina started at a new school she did not just try to squeeze her way into the popular crown. Instead, Nina decided to become friends with people who were just average human beings and were nothing special. Windy talks about how nice Nina is to her and Elena and says, “We’d never had an in-crowd worthy friend before” (López 20). From this statement one can understand that Nina is meant to be popular but instead she would rather be a friend to average people who have above average personalities. Nina cares about the people in the general public and not just a social status or the cool table at lunch. Secondly, while people are giving their speeches Nina claps for the people who did not do as well as the others. Windy thinks about how her speech was bad but yet Nina applauded her and said, “I’ve never been applauded before. I knew my speech was crappy, but I felt like a celebrity” (López 44). As a result of clapping for everyone, Nina made people feel as if they are important and they matter. Nina does not care if anyone had a crappy speech, so she claps for him or her to make him or her feel like his or her speech was magnificent. Next, Nina protects people when they fall down. After Windy and Elena slip on ice Nina helps them up and says, “No problem, every school has mean girls like that. If you let them get to you, they just act worse. Eventually,…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The movie “10 Things I Hate About You” is about a new student, named Cameron, at Padua High School who immediately falls in love with the beautiful and popular Bianca Stratford. Bianca has an older sister named Kat who is the less popular of the two sisters and is sort of an outcast. Kat does not seem interested in dating and that is unfortunate for Bianca as she is interested in dating but not allowed to participate in the dating game unless Kat does as well. That was a rule set up by their father Walter.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “To me the interesting main character is never the one without flaws,” claims J.J. Abrams, as he explains that perfect characters do not appeal to readers. Readers like to connect to the characters in a story. No one is perfect, which makes connecting to a faultless character difficult. Every character is unique because of the flaws and characteristics that define them. Short stories must quickly develop characters, so the audience can create a connection early. Protagonists contain a narrow mind in a lot of short stories. Closed-minded characters do not consider the other side of a story or argument. Protagonists in the short stories “The Sniper,” “The Scarlet Ibis,” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” are narrow-minded and biased toward…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book, Ellen Foster, revolves around a young girl’s unstable life and her ability to fight through obstacles and to find people who truly care for her. As a young child, Ellen was damaged by her father especially because he treated her with extreme disrespect. After her mother’s death, Ellen did not really have any family left as her family members continued to pass away. However, Ellen learned to tend to adult responsibilities at a very young age. Specifically Starletta and her family, Julia and Roy, and her new mama all supported her in a way that made her feel as if she were a young girl rather than an adult with responsibilities.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Speak- Critical Lens

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Another evil that Melinda experiences is Heather using their friendship for her own benefit. The literary element used here is character. One prime example of this is when Heather asks Melinda to help decorate the staff room for Thanksgiving. Melinda helps her just wanting to keep her friend happy. When Melinda’s decorations are praised, Heather takes all the credit. Melinda overcomes this evil by telling Heather she won’t help her decorate for the prom. Heather on her own does a horrible job and all off the seniors end up hating her.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Short stories require different styles and features, than regular novels. Single characters, shortened plots, and a conflict with resolution, are some of the key features that make a successful short story. With having a single character, it lets the writer develop their background, which gives the reader much needed description to create an understanding, or relationship with the character. The shortened plot, with a build up to the conflict and resolution, grips the reader, and makes them feel the suspense of the author’s story.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Katherine is a perfect character that displays both chacteristics of this play being an anti-romantic. Katherine is a very troubled person in this play, she is as they call the “shrew”. Calling her the shrew just shows the very prominent sexist ideals in this play I think making it very unromantic, men do not like her because she speaks her mind and it very independent unlike her calm and beautiful sister Bianca. In the time that this play was popular it was a normal thing to find women like Katherine undesirable, although this is true it is still something that very common in this day and age. In the scheme of things women are still told to shut their mouths and hold back their oppinions so they do not come off as annoying or unattractive. A perfect example of this would be the movie adaptation of this play, 10 Things I Hate About You. In this movie you have the same characters like Katherine and Bianca except in a high school setting. Katherine is still seen as a shrew for not holding back her tongue and she is penilized for it.…

    • 1670 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gil Junger communicates the idea that following the crowd can have negative consequences using visuals and sounds. This theme is expressed through the employment of camera angles and dialogue. With the introduction of the Stratford Sisters into the film the camera jukstaposes them. The juksta position between the two sisters offers the audience an insight into their attitude and lifestyle. This technique shows the audience that Kat (Katrina) “doesn’t give a damn about my reputation!” while her sister Bianca is portrayed as a spoilt and confident sophomore that cares about what she looks like and what everyone says of her “I love my sketches but I can’t live without my Prada backpack.” This quote communicates to the audience that Bianca is a foolish sophomore. Dialogue is another employed technique used in this film. Dialogue is used to show that “Popularity isn’t everything,” and that Kat does not care of what anyone thinks of her and follows what she thinks is right. At the party scene Kat gives up on what she believes is right and follows the crowd. As consequence of following the crowd Kat gets drunk and starts dancing on the table top, when Patrick confronts her she asks him “Isn’t getting drunk what we’re supposed to do at a party?” This quote reveals to the audience that Kat is following what the crowd is doing and does not care about what she believes in. Gil Junger explains that following the crowd can have negative consequences with the help of visuals and sounds.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The father of Kat and Bianca and his desire to not allow Bianca to date until Kat does. The father does this knowing that Kat is in no way interested to date someone. Kat looks like an angry stuck up girl in her last year of high school who just wants to be her own person. “Am I that transparent? I want you, I need you. Oh, baby. Oh, baby” is just one example to support her being very stuck up.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She rejects the extremist model of Helen 's character but uses it to become more understanding as she learned to balance conflicting aspects throughout the…

    • 862 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics