Analyse af novellen 'The White Cat'

The short story “The White Cat” is written by Jim Brannin in 2017. The short story is written with a third person narrator, who has knowledge about the main character, Hattie’s thoughts, and feelings. The narrator follows Hattie throughout the entirety of the short story. The only character’s thoughts we have insight in is Hattie’s, and we only hear very little about the additional characters. We only hear a little about Hattie’s niece’s children who is Jenny and Heather, that lives in the same house as herself, and we hear sparingly about the handyman and cleaner of the house who is Mr. Jackson. Hattie’s niece and her daughters takes care of Hattie who has become too old to live on her own.

The story begins with Hattie writing the beginning writing a letter. She likes to watch the cats outside her window with a certain white cat being her favorite. They live in the garden. Hattie only writes the first line of the letter before the stops, debating on how to tell a story about the cats, and wondering who she is writing it to. Hattie’s husband Johnny died a while ago. They had twin boys named Max and Georgie. Max died in a car accident and Georgie moved to Australia after living a youth with drugs, shoplifting and an unwanted pregnancy. Hattie didn’t have contact to Georgie anymore and regretted it greatly. Therefore, she lives with her niece and her daughters who take care of her.