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English Short story The Black Cat
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English Short story The Black Cat
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English short story The Black Cat Floren Bout V4B1 The story is narrated by an unnamed character. He is an abusive bully and
murderer. He made home a living hell for his wife, pets, and himself.
2 He's writing to us from his prison cell, on the eve of his scheduled death by
hanging. He confesses everything he had done in the past.
3 The narrator blames all he has done on the cat. According the narrator, it's the
cat's fault that the domestic scene of the story ultimately turned so foul. The
cat is a black cat, so that explains the title of the story.
4 The main characters are the murderer (the narrator), his wife, his first cat Pluto
and his second cat.
5 He is a man, probably aged 30 to 40. He is a psychopath, and he has a
drinking problem. Because of that, he abuses his wife and his pets.
6 He is angry, and he has a drinking problem. But he blames everything on the
cat.
7 The narrator has a conflict with himself. He can’t control himself and keeps
drinking and abusing his wife and pets.
8 First he just kills everyone he has a conflict with. At the end, he has so much
guilt that he hangs himself and dies.
9 It all happens in his own house. It must have happened here, because if it
would have happened anywhere else, someone would have found out sooner.
10 Well, the story is about a psychopath who murders all his pets and his wife, so
that’s pretty creepy. It would be a fun and scary Halloween story.
11 The themes are abuse, guilt and murder. The murderer abuses his pets and
his wife, at the end he even kills all of them. And because of all the guilt he
has, he also kills himself.
12 The black cat is a symbol. He feels guilt for abusing and killing his first (black)
cat, so he buys a new black cat. He later also, accidentally, kills that one.
13 The author emphasizes the effects alcohol can have. The effects of the
narrator's struggle with alcoholism include not only violence but a loss of
himself.
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