Essay about The Cat and his Master - 1290 Words

The Cat and his Master Puss in Boots is a strange little folk tale in which a talking cat performs deeds of heroism in order to further his masters lot in life. It is saddled with a moral which implies that through hard work and ingenuity one can rise above his station. This hardly seems to be the case, however, when we look at the contributions made by the millers youngest son and master of the puss himself. Furthermore, the symbolism peppered throughout the tale would seem to indicate that there is more going on. The tale begins with the death of a miller, who leaves his sole possessions to his three sons. The youngest of the sons winds up with nothing but what he believes to be a lowly cat, which he is convinced will be good†¦show more content†¦The cat in turn becomes the son and the main protagonist of our story and the only character to go through a transformation. When viewed at this angle, the moral retains its truth. The deeper story here seems to be a part coming-of-age, part underdog-overcoming-the-odds tale. The story begins with a miller. In a pre-industrial society, the miller would have had an important position, akin to a woodcutter. The miller was responsible for grinding corn into meal, essential in making bread and other staples. His death represents a lack of a provider in his sons lives. The two elder sons are granted an inheritance that will allow them to make a living, but not the youngest, who gets the cat. The cat, a possession of the miller, also finds himself without a provider, and hatches a plan to prevent the son from eating him. In the course of the story, the son becomes as reliant on the cat as he was on his father. It is at this point that the cat replaces the son as a formal story element. In many respects, the cat and the son are two halves of the same character, their fates interlocked with one another. This is a deliberate device which reflects the medieval superstiti on that cats were somehow linked to their masters, as Robert Darnton suggests in his article The Great Cat Massacre. The cat asks for some boots to protect his feet from the thorny undergrowth. Putting boots on the cat reinforces the superstition and creates anShow MoreRelatedCharacteristics Of Fairy Tales1024 Words   |  5 Pagesthe point of you is generally in the good people, weather it be he speaking to himself in his mind or someone narration everything that the good guy does. I have also noticed that the hero in every fairy tale comes from humble or poor beginnings the setting of each book is generally a little cottage or small home. I have yet to read about a hero who was rich and did nothing but help others with the use of his or her wealth. This is most likely because of the stereotypical mindset that many writersRead MoreTrickster Tales : The Trickster Tale1400 Words   |  6 Pagesmost cultures, Africa being the most relevant. Therefore, the trickster tales passed down in varied cultures throughout generations have much value. Some of the supplementary famous tales being How Stories c ame to Earth, Coyote Steals Fire, and Master Cat. Throughout this time analyzing these stories, it has helped define a better judgement of what a trickster in a trickster tale actually represents. Nevertheless, in the three tales all of the protagonists are non-human, but present themselves asRead MoreTrickster Tales : The Trickster, Gods, Spirits, And Master Cat1167 Words   |  5 Pagesin most cultures, Africa being the most relevant. Therefore the trickster tales passed down in varied cultures throughout generations have much value. Some of the supplementary famous tales being How Stories came to Earth, Coyote Steals Fire, and Master Cat. Throughout this time analyzing these stories, it has helped define a better judgement of what a trickster in a trickster tale actually represents. Nevertheless, in the three tales all of the protagonists are non-human, but present themselves asRead MoreAnalysis Of The Great Cat Massacre1402 Words   |  6 Pagesof Darton’s The Great Cat Massacre reveals that not all subjects in the seventeenth and eighteenth century benefited from the enlightenment. These essays and short stories tell us that the peasants, described in â€Å"Peasants Tell Tales† have violent, nasty, and brutal outlooks on life based on their harsh upbringing and the stories they told and passed down. 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I’m sure it is not without reason that dogs are called â€Å"man’s best friend.† They are loyal, obedient, and also protective. Even if their attempts at protection are sometimes unnecessary, at least they try. On one occasion while our family was setting off various fireworks on the Fourth of July, we set off a ground bloom. A ground bloom is basically a firework that spins around on the ground spewing fireRead MoreThe Black Cat Analysis Essay1107 Words   |  5 Pages Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. â€Å"The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernaturalRead MoreThe Master And Margarita By Mikhail Bulgakov1744 Words   |  7 PagesThe Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov that is set in the Russian city of Moscow while Invisible Cities is a novel by Italo Calvino. Both novels share striking similarities but also do share sharply contrasting approaches. Both books are fictional and have similar stylistic devices in their description of events. Invisible Cities is a book that requires the reader to use extensi vely of his imagination so as to envision the cities that he is describing. The description of the citiesRead MoreThe Pit And The Pendulum By Edgar Allen Poe1703 Words   |  7 Pagesswallowed up in a mad rushing of the soul into Hades. Then silence, and stillness, night were the universe.† This quote from â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum† is an excellent example of how Edgar Allen Poe is a master at using point of view, setting, and conflict to display the thematic message of fear in his short stories. This example uses all three literary strategies. The setting contributes to the theme of fear by stating that the soul was descending to Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, or hell,Read MoreEdgar Allan Poes The Black Cat Essay examples1299 Words   |  6 PagesEdgar Allan Poes The Black Cat Edgar Allan Poes The Black Cat is a story of how an arguably demonic, manipulating black cat ruins the life of its master. After being maimed and murdered by its once