The Catbird Seat Analysis

4. Mr. Erwin Martin, the protagonist of the story, was a small, intelligent, neat and precise man, who followed a rigid daily routine. He never drank or smoked and because of this it made him an exemplary employee at his firm. His boss even stated that “Man is fallible but Martin isn’t”. In terms of characters Martin is considered a round character. He is considered this because he is well developed and has many character traits. As the story progresses Erwin does some things out of character. One of these being, the plotting of the murder of his fellow co-worker. It does not coincide with his character traits and we can also infer that he is going through a change which might make him a dynamic character as well. Instead of murdering Mrs. Barrows with brute force, he “kills” her career by using his knowledge of his perceived personality against her. He does all these things in order to rid himself of Mrs. Barrows and continue his routine life.

her selfish and evil ways, causes the destruction of many people in the town of

Between 1865 and 1939 not all Americans accepted big business dominance. In the beginning of this era

The 1930s was a time of negativity for many types of people. The country’s economy was at a disparagingly low state due to the crash of the stock market. Banks went into bankruptcy, businesses recorded all time lows, and people had massive amounts of debt. Companies couldn’t afford to have many

Meeting the old man is the first time in "The Hounds of Fate" in which power and authority shift, changing hands from a nebulous Fate to the concrete reality of Martin's ability to make a decision. His decision to allow the old man to believe his is Uncle Tom is sadly a passive decision, but it is a decision nonetheless. Martin's looks alone something that fate did provided him with becomes the basis of hope. For a brief moment, Stoner seems ironically in control of his life. He for the first time feels empowered enough to ask for what he wants in an assertive manner: "All this empowers him: ""Hot, with onions," said Stoner. It was the only time in his life that he had made a rapid

She was an active participant in her husband’s campaigns. “I made appointments for speaking, recruited speakers, answered newspaper attacks, contracted for the printing and distribution of circulars and sample ballots,” she recalled, “and more than all, kept a brave face to the foe and a smiling face to the almost exhausted candidate.” Her presence on the campaign trail—an unusual place to find a woman then—drew fire from William’s opponents. She would later recall, “I did not stop to think what a change this was for a young woman considered only an ornament and household mistress.” As William’s congressional secretary in “Washington City,” she managed her husband’s correspondence and speeches while writing columns for two local newspapers

But what makes her so destructive is not just her selfish reasoning behind her deception and her insane obsession with a married man. It’s her stunning ability to manipulate the

During my senior year, I was presented a project in my AP Literature class, which resulted in giving a two-day class lecture on an analysis of a short story I was assigned. I was paired off with a few of my friends and we were assigned "The Catbird Seat" to discuss. We decided to use a Piktochart, an online infographic, the first day to explain our short story and do Kahoot/questions the second day, but since all of us had busy schedules at the time, each of us choose different parts to complete. I was given the responsibly of doing all the analysis questions to discuss plus the setting/character analysis for our Piktochart. My group reconvened a few days before we had to present to run through it along with making sure everything was right.

While reading Sam Anderson’s “In Defense of Distraction”, I sensed that the he was trying to make aware to his reader’s that as we continue to move forward as a technologically advanced society, our generation’s attention span diminishes gradually. Taking into consideration the “Suspend Judgment” analytical move I managed not to jump to conclusions and really grasp the idea that he was trying to put out. At first, he did make a really good first impression at the beginning of the essay. Anderson wrote his introduction as if he was having a one on one conversation with his reader’s. He asked them to block out the distractions and devote themselves to the essay. I enjoyed the first two interviews with David Meyer and Winifred Gallagher. In his

Corrie’s leadership clearly displayed her ability to lead with inspirational motivation, which is when followers are

Mr. Bernard seems to have a hard-changer personality in the fact that he believes in

McNeil was not able to perform to expectations due to her family obligations and had to face constant pressure from Walter who together with the rest of the team were proven to be working longer and with better results than McNeil. But due to a lack of awareness, flexibility and certain tolerance measures within the company she was subjected to discrimination and the threat of termination.

A few weeks earlier, John M. Case, board chairman, president, and sole owner of the

Mr. Martins motives to kill Mrs. Barrows is effortlessly distinguished as, James Thurber, the author of “The Catbird Seat,” effectively uses the literary devices of suspense, dramatic irony and tone to characterize Mr. Martin as punctilious. As the story begins, Thurber creates suspense for the reader as Mr. Martin is portrayed as unusual for buying a pack of cigarettes in the most crowded place. The story’s suspense is displayed as when “… [he] was generally known that [he] did not smoke... ”(Thurber 1). By letting the reader in on this anomaly allows the reader to experience suspense and the reader is already thinking this all has to be part of Martin’s meticulous plan to kill Barrows.

“It nevertheless made sense not to broach the topic when he was preoccupied or distracted. A refusal in such circumstances may well not reflect my employer’s true feelings on the matter… I had to choose my moment wisely.” (12)