What Is The Point Of View Of The Catbird Seat

Point of View
The point of view in the story “The Catbird Seat” is third-person limited, meaning the story is told from an outsider who can see into the thoughts and actions of one character, in this instance, a man by the name of Mr. Martin. The evidence of this in the story, is that the reader can see into the thoughts of this one character, hearing his amusing scenarios such as when “the gavel rapped in [his] mind”(Thurber, 1) starting the imaginary court case in his head. Moreover, the readers see into his private actions such as his routine before bed or his travels to Barrows house “walking north on Fifth Avenue” (3). However, while the narrator does look into Mr. Martin’s thoughts, the point of view is not that of Mr. Martin. This is
Martin, the man whom the story follows. Commonly, the protagonist is the character that the readers learn the most about and moreso tend to be the hero in charge. Mr. Martin fulfills these requirements as the reader learns things as small as his routine where he “walked home, as usual, and had a glass of milk, as usual”(2). Furthermore, as odd of a hero as he may be, that is still what he ends up being in this story, essentially defeating the evil that was tearing down the company, i.e. Mrs. Barrows. Finally, Mr. Martin is a round character because we learn many of his characteristics including that him the “most efficient worker neither drinks nor smokes”(2). We learn of many of his attributes through his inner monologues, but we learn a bit as well from how he interacts with Barrows. Mr. Martin is intelligent and meticulous as shown through the elaborate plans he creates, and his boss's opinion of “Man is fallible, but Martin isn’t”(1). In addition to this, he is a dedicated worker seeing as he had been going through the his plan and its facts “every night for seven nights”(1). Furthermore, in most cases he wasn’t a man to take risks, which is the whole reason he created such a risky plan because “No one would ever see [a murderer] in the cautious, painstaking hand of Erwin Martin … unless he were caught in the act”(1). Herein lies once again proof as to the true intelligence processed by Martin. He is an older gentlemen assumed
Martin is at home reviewing Mrs. Barrows case and he finally lets the readers know what it is he intends to do to her. That being sentencing her to death. This is the inciting incident because while Erwin did mention that he planned to “rub out” Mrs. Barrows it was said in such a lighthearted way it did not seem as if he truly intended to kill her. Moreover, during this portion of the story Thurber moreso dances around the subject of his plan allowing most of this section to be backstory, explaining who Mrs. Barrows was, and why Martin disliked her. Whereas, after the inciting incident he goes in depth into the plan slowly building up to the climax. This climax being at the end of the story when Mr. Fitweiler has called Martin into his office to explain that Mrs. Barrows might have in fact had a severe breakdown, during which Barrows burst into the room yelling about how she is not insane. This is the climax for two main reasons. One, it best shows the effect Mr. Martin’s actions had on Mrs. Barrows. The reasoning behind this is that, during the time Erwin was at Ulgine’s house he did a number of odd things that happened to be unplanned, such as implying that he will blow up his boss or stating that he was on heroin. Due to the fact that his thoughts at that time were not shared with the reader, it left them unsure as to what his plan was and what was going to happen. Overall, leaving this scene, where Barrows