Penny's blog

【Analysis of the Story】

Characters：

protagonist--> A very old man, a very old woman and cats

Setting：

backdrop setting

Narrative Point of View：

subjuective (3rd person limited) narrator

Plot：

Setting：The very old couple lived so lonely.

Conflict：The old woman wanted to have a cat, and the old man promised to get her one.

Rising action：He set out over the hills to look for one. There was a hill covered with cats.

Climax：The old man wanted to choose a prettiest one back home. But those cats were all beautiful and he couldn't decide which one he should pick. Cats followed the old man to his home.

Denouement：Cats began to quarrel for the question, "Which one of you is the prettiest?" . Finally, after the fight, they found a little frightened kitten which seemed the only one survied from the fight.

End：The couple took the cat into their house and took good care of it. Finally, the homely, scraggly kitten became the most beautiful cat in their hearts. 

Theme：

The thing which is the most beautiful is felt by our heart and defined by the connection between the object and us, not by the appearance of the object alone. 

Style：

1. Words are easy to understand. The size of words is moderate.

2. Some sentences are repeated many times.

3.The color is mainly black and white.

4. The story uses personification.

【Reader's Response】

I like the final sentence, " I ought to know, for I've seen—Hundreds of cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats—and not one was as pretty as this one. When I turned to this page and saw this sentence, I suddenly understood what this picture book wants to tell children or adults. Since then, the sentence was so impressive that, even though I've read some other books later, I still could remember the main idea of the story. Therefore, I decided to post and analyze this book!

Besides, the figures of those cats are very unclear at the beginning. But after the old couple took the kitten into their house, the figures of the kitten are much clearer to see. Finally, it becomes a fluffy lovely cat. I guess the arrangement of this change is to show that how pretty the kitten is is reflected on how it is treated by the old couple. And the old couple realized that with their good care, even a homely cat could become a pretty cat as well.