I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki- Essay

 

I Am a Cat

-- Natsume Soseki

Introduction

Natsume Soseki is a famous Japanese writer. In the story “I Am a Cat’’ he describes the middle-class life from the perspective of a cat. This story is a beautiful synthesis of humour and pathos.

From birthplace to bamboo grove

The cat was born in a gloomy, damp place. The first human being met by the cat was a student. In the opinion of the cat, students are ferocious because they sometimes catch the cats, cook them and eat them. The student took the cat from its birthplace and threw him away in a bamboo bush. Thus, the cat was removed from its dear mother.

From bamboo grove to the school teacher’s house

The cat crawled through a hole in the bamboo grove and entered the house of a school teacher. The first person met by the cat in the house was Osan, the maid. She was worse than the student. She grabbed the cat by the neck and threw him outdoors. The cat could not endure hunger and cold. So he tried to enter the house again. The master told the maid to let the cat in.

Character of the school teacher

The school teacher was a man with a weak stomach but he ate large amount of food. He pretended that he was a voracious reader but he used to sleep whenever he opened the book and read two or three pages. Though his job was easy, he always told his friends that the teaching profession was a very difficult one.

Pathos

In the house of the school teacher, nobody except the master was nice to the cat. Wherever he went, he was kicked. The fact that they had not given him a name showed that they did not care for him. The cat used to sleep on the container in the mornings and on a charcoal-burning foot warmer in the evenings. When he tried to sleep on the bed with the children at night, the master gave him a terrible whipping. Though he suffered due to the cold atmosphere in the kitchen, he was not allowed to sleep inside the rooms. When he met Shiro, the female cat living in the house of a soldier, she told him that there was nothing inconsiderate as humans. Mike, who lived in the house of a lawyer, said that humans did not understand the rights of other creatures in the world.

The master’s attempts to become a creative artist

The master wrote haiku poems with many grammatical errors. He tried to acquire proficiency in archery, singing and playing on the violin but all his attempts ended as failures. He began to draw pictures. No one could understand what he had drawn. His friend referred to the words of Andrea del Sarto, the famous Italian painter: “To draw, you have to interpret nature in its original form.” The following day, the master tried Andrea del Sarto’s theory by using the cat as a model. When the master completed the painting, the colour of the cat was neither yellow nor black. It was only the smearing of many tones. The strange thing was that the cat had no eyes in the painting!

Conclusion

This story, narrated by the cat, is a satire on the behaviour of human beings. The style is simple, direct and clear.