Analysis of 'Letter to a Cat'

The worst thing for many people is not being accepted by others. Everybody has properly experienced not being accepted by others. For most of us we have our families to come home to and always know that they will never judge us. But what if your family also turns their back on you? “Being hurt by someone you love doesn't mean you have to stop loving, its one way for you to learn not to give up and keep loving” – unknown. Are you supposed to leave your family behind and start a new life? Or give them a second chance? That is some of the problems that Norma fasces in “Letter to a Cat” (1997).

The short story starts in media res and it is built up, so the paragraphs are kind of a new scene. Our main character is Norma and the story is told by a subjective third person narrator, because we still have access to her thoughts and feelings. That means we understand Norma and sympathize with her. Another effect is that we do not hear about Daragh and Junes thoughts and feelings, so we only see them on the surface. The author has played with an ironic undertone, which the cat is a symbol of. The cat is Norma’s only reliable friend in the home, and in the end she ironically compares her relationship to the family, to her relationship to the cat.