"Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-sized"
Most novels that talk about childhood describe this phase as one full of joy, happiness and games. Cat's Eye is a brilliant exception. It's a refreshing vision of a somber childhood full of bitterness that determines a future. This novel makes us reflect on the phrase The past is in the past. It's not. The past always leaves a mark, a scar; it shapes us.
PLOT
After years of absence, Elaine Risley, brilliant painter, comes back to her hometown, Toronto. She's in town to present some of her paintings, her first exhibit to the public. Elaine is anxious, not for the importance of the show, but for the phantoms of the past that harass her.
Through flashbacks, we get to know Elaine in her childhood. She's the daughter of an enthomologist and a housewife, she has a brother that is interested in science, Stephen. They live far from the city. Elaine's father is a scientist that collects insects in the woods. Once they establish with civilization, Elaine realizes that her parents have not trained her for a world that seems to have been hidden to her, a world full of posibilities and challenges, for the ones Elaine is not prepared.
Initially, Elaine befriends Grace and Carol, they begin an average friendship without any major events occuring. Then, Cordelia joins them. Cordelia is a dominant girl who tries to change Elaine, not in a subtle way but she constantly shows her inadequacy, how awkwardly she walks, how stupid she is. Cordelia wants to destroy her to reconstruct her from scratch. Elaine becomes dependent on physical pain to avoid her friends who instead of helping appear to be undermining her everyday until one day a joke goes too far and Elaine almost dies.
Elaine separates form the girls and finds out they did not attack her because they hated her but because they were imitating their own mothers who believed that Elaine was not worthy of respect because of her agnostic/ atheist family. Elaine appears to overcome these incidents, but the resentment and rage remain on her like a scar, impossible to erase.
Elaine grows up. As an adolescent, she runs into Cordelia once more. The traumas and images from the past are gone. Elaine becomes insolent towards Cordelia and even insults her constantly. They separate once more, not for resentment. Elaine finds her too weak.
As time goes by, Elaine decides to become an artist. She draws in an exceptional manner, but she is unable to show passion as her teacher, Josef, suggests her. She has an affair with him later on.
Elaine's life is filled with apparent indifference, with a necessary rigidity and an everlasting feeling of inadequacy. She is decided not to be a victim, but something inside her makes her feel uncomfortable with whom she is, wherever she is. Happiness always seems to be slipping from her hands, or it is because it is a concept she never learnt, never understood. The influence of the past is too strong even though she doesn't tell, even if she would not like to admit it.
STRUCTURE:
The novel is narrated in first person for the protagonist, Elaine. The novel begins in a present timeline with the painter getting ready to go to the event that could bring her fame or infamy. After the first scene, we take a trip through memory lane with vivid, cold and somber details. Every chapter begins with a scene in the present, then we go back to the past of Elaine.
THEMES:
Bullying is one of the main topics of this novel, it is mentioned in a raw manner, it shows how it shapes people during their childhood, how they get used to all kinds of violence: verbal, psychological.
Other relevant topics are the influence of childhood, mother and father figures, school. By the climax of the novel, a dominating topic is feminism: women in a world dominated by men, although also plagued with women that are desperate for power, women that are able to cast shadows on the average woman. Another topic that is treated in a subtle but masterful and brilliant way is the art of painting: movements, techniques. Religion is another important theme, addressed in a direct and controversial fashion.
Fascinating, somber, raw, real, the novel Cat's Eye is an literary experience that deserves all the awards. An innovating tale about the influence of chilhdood and children cruelty.
CHARACTERS: 10/10
PLOT: 9/10
THEME: 10/10
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