preview

The Cat's Table Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

Growth is a characteristic that comes with time. It can define the path of one’s personal success. That path or journey, our strengths and weaknesses can be tested. We can be pushed past our limits and bring out the fear in us. It is a learning experience that can shape the person that we grow up to be. New and different experiences help add to our knowledge and personality. It can also change our ways of living and beliefs. These experiences can take us on a journey with new people that can help you learn new things about yourself that you never discovered. The knowledge taught by these people can assist in your growth ,spiritually and emotionally. In Michael Ondaatje’s novel, The Cat’s Table, eleven year old Michael is taken out of his …show more content…

It was a place where he can express himself and break free of his boarding school memories in which he explains in the quote, “ On the Oronsay, however, there was the chance to escape all order”(Ondaatje 12). Michael, Cassius and Ramadhin were like kids running wild in a candy store. They enjoyed their freedom without any parental supervision and would violate curfew to sneak into the swimming pool on the first-class deck.They participated in smoking twigs from an old cane chair, even though Ramadhin had asthma. But the most daring chronicle was spying on the prisoner that was also on board. The prisoner had nightly walks after all of the passengers would be off to sleep. Michael believed that this was his time to finally disobey rules and to be adventurous: “ I had no family responsibilities. I could go anywhere, do anything. And Ramadhin, Cassius, and I had already established on rule. Each day we had to do at least one thing that was forbidden. The day had barely begun, and we still had hours ahead of us to perform this task”(Ondaatje 25). Michael’s friends were an outlet for him to express himself playfully. They helped break free of his isolation in a physical, adventurous

Get Access