Cat Person Literary Elements

Contemporary Short Fiction

English

A modern-day college town

"Cat Person" is narrated in the third-person omniscient voice, not by an actual character within the story. However, the narrator gives us details about the inner thoughts of Margot, the main character, while withholding access to Robert's interior thoughts. In that sense, the story is told more from Margot's point of view.

Dramatic, trendy, relatable

Protagonist: Margot; Antagonist: Robert

Margot isn't sure whether she's attracted to Robert, but pursues him anyway, mostly out of boredom and confusion. By the time she realizes she doesn't actually want to sleep with him, she's in too deep, and decides it would be easier to continue having sex with him than to tell him she's not interested. Because she doesn't really seem to understand her feelings, Margot hurts Robert by not being up-front about her lack of attraction to him.

The climax of the story takes place when Robert invites Margot back to his house, presumably so they can sleep together. By this point, the reader knows that Margot isn't really attracted to him, but she continues the sexual encounter anyway.

Margot's lack of attraction to Robert is foreshadowed throughout the story. From the moment she sees him, she thinks he's cute but doesn't feel any major pull towards him, and tries to rationalize a way that she might find him attractive, but basically comes up short. This happens repeatedly: every time they meet up in person, Margot finds a new characteristic to grasp for that might catalyze her physical attraction to Robert, but it just doesn't seem to work. This foreshadows the lack of excitement—and, indeed, revulsion—she will eventually feel when they sleep together.

During the early stages of Robert and Margot's text exchange, they jokingly call each other by their cats' names. The cats are personified such that Margot's childhood cat Pita is said to be in a love triangle with Robert's cats Mu and Yan, allowing Robert and Margot to joke about romantic feelings indirectly, using their jokes about cats as a proxy.