Cat's Eye: Passage Analysis Essay

This passage, taken from Margaret Atwoods novel Cats Eye, depicts a memoir of an older woman, as she recalls an event in her teenage years that she experienced with her friend, Cordelia. Through the narration of her memory, the reader is able to compare the protagonist and Cordelia while being revealed to the concept of time the narrator is partial to.

The narrator of the novel is an older woman, but the descriptions of her thirteen year old world are in first person and present tense, immediately drawing the reader into the immediacy of her memoir. She sets the scene on a muggy Saturday in winter, as her and her friend Cordelia ride on the streetcar, going downtown.

The use of unity of the girls actions: were impervious, we scintillate, we are thirteen throughout the majority of the passage, is both vaguely ominous and comical at the same time. As readers we easily see through the faade of toughness and maturity that the two girls project outwards. The reader can picture Cordelia, a thirteen year old child outstaring other streetcar passengers, while assuming an air of nonchalance that the two girls seem to be involved in. We think we are friends, draws the readers attention; the phrase seemingly contradicts the above assertions of their unity. The use of the word think has a retrospective, reflective effect, even before the knowledge that this event is a flashback, is revealed to the reader.

Atwoods precise, vivid description of their tough, crayon-red, shiny as nails mouths, Cordelias opaque, glinting as metal eyes, suggest a hard mask that they both choose to wear, as well as their seemingly identical long wool coats with the matching accessories, the kerchiefs stuffed into pockets, the scorned head coverings, suggests a fierce desire to conform to what they believe the world is like.

Yet, their observances of the different types of old ladies reflect a different attitude that they project to each other and the world, almost ironically. The detailed descriptions of old ladies clothing seem to parallel the descriptions the narrator gives of the clothes her and Cordelia wear. It is almost ironic the way they comment derisively on the ladies that are respectably dressed, the ones with clamped self-righteous mouths while the non-conformist ladies with bizarre costumes are the kind (they) like best. Lavish descriptions of their shaky makeup, their lustreless hair and their habit of talking to themselves suggest that the girls are fascinated and intrigued by their appearances, even though the old ladies are not conforming to societys standards and the two girls currently strive to conform. Their naivety again, is apparent when they both agree that the old ladies deliberately choose to be unconventional, and when they confidently discuss their plans of being free to choose when they are old, of what possessions they will have and what they will wear.

The image of the protagonist and Cordelia riding downtown on a streetcar almost contradicts the opening idea of the passage time is not a line. But as the clothing of the old and the young parallel each other, time can also be shown by paralleling the teenage girls and the old ladies. The twice breathed air suggests the air itself is recycled as it circulates, as in the mutual relationship the girls have with the old ladies: they mutually critique each other, verbally and silently while sitting in the same streetcar. The old ladies hair dyed soft colours of straw blonde and baby blue while the girls prefer strong crayon red makeup, the slow iguana of the protagonist contrasted with the animated bizarre old ladies, suggest the passengers on the streetcar all take elements from each others age, so they can seem younger or more mature. And if we consider the streetcar as a metaphor for time, inside time there is a continual circular motion of the new affecting the old, the old affecting the new, while elements from both old and new continually resurface and then reduce again to create a cycle, of sorts.

As the narrator finishes her recollection and therefore is in present day, we again get a sense of the non linear nature of time: the protagonist physically moving forward and backwards in the mirror, sometimes seeing a 35 year old, sometimes seeing a 50. She concludes with a resigned observation, that time depends on other factors, such as the brightness, and how much you distort your vision.

In this passage, a memoir of the narrator as a teenage girl is told to the reader in vivid, meticulous detail, capturing the nave and slightly ironic attitudes of her and Cordelia while allowing us to visualise the present day narrators pessimistic and resigned manner and also giving us through real life examples, her views on the ambiguousness of time.