Who Owns Whom? A Puzzling Animal, the Cat
"Meow meow, hi there!" Almost every morning, I talk to a furry, cute, white and gray loveable animal, a cat, my neighbor, walking around our apartment’s porch. In spite of my paying "great regards" to the cat every time, it deals with me so capriciously, which disappoints me most of the time while a person passes by me with a dog wagging its tail and showing its love to the owner. Nearly every time, the cat glances at me and goes back to its "work" almost ignoring me. But I cannot give up talking to it every time I see it. Its look, voice, and appearance are enough to carry away me. Once in a while, it replies to me, or comes to rub against my legs, which satisfies me a lot. At such times, I feel that the cat likes me as much as I like it. Its furry soft feeling and power of rubbing against me are just so comfortable.
But, what a mistaken idea this was! According to Fogle, cats often rub against humans to put cat scent for their territorial marking, or to let other cats know that they visited the place (78). Nevertheless, this puzzling animal is becoming the most popular pet among humans all over the world, or perhaps because of its puzzling character, humans have been enslaved by this furry little animal for a long time. In spite of the popularity of having a cat as a pet, its mode of life is still a very riddle, while most kinds of the domesticated animals are already documented. Bradshaw mentions that domestication of a cat is unusual compared to other domestic animals. Cats are not domestic species "made" by man such as dogs, and also they are not an animal trained for the purpose of helping man’s work, such as an elephant. It is more likely that cats themselves accept humans as part of their lives (6). Perhaps this is the reason why a cat’s mode of life is still behind a veil in spite of its important place among humans. "Cats are domesticated, but it was the cats that domesticated themselves." It is obvious that cats are nearly perfectly domesticated, or at least they look as if that they are having perfect relationships living with humans, but it was not humans that domesticated cats.
Throughout the history of writing, cats have symbolized craftiness, misfortune, deceit and death. Richard Wright creates no exception to this reputation in his novel Native Son. Bigger Thomas, a young, depressed black man, is placed in an awkward position when he is interviewed for a job with the Daltons, a wealthy white family. The Dalton's unnamed white cat, gazes at Bigger, symbolizing initially white society. This gazing causes Bigger to feel angry and awkward so that is comes to assume a far more critical symbolic level on the night of Mary Dalton's murder. His feelings lead him to express himself overtly in violence, specifically Bigger's killing of Mary. In effect, the Dalton's cat kills Mary.
Flavorwire (2013). The Code Behind the Kitty: Unpacking the Racist Myth of the Siamese Cat. [online] Retrieved from: http://flavorwire.com/397512/the-code-behind-the-kitty-unpacking-the-racist-myth-of-the-siamese-cat/ [Accessed: 15 Dec 2013].
In Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the book begins by the author describing, “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug”. It is the body, the form that has transformed and no...
A soft purr, a gentle paw. A pet cat is a luxury that humans have indulged in for thousands of years, from their beginnings in Africa and the Middle East, all the way to homes here in 2014. Cats rival dogs as the most common pet in the United States, with 30.4% of houses owning 2.1 cats each (“U.S. Pet Ownership Statistics”).While working cats, such as farm cats, barn cats, and other rural, semi-feral animals may be kept for specific purposes of keeping pest animals at bay, the vast majority of kept cats in the US are pet cats, kept in homes for companionship and affection. Cat owners want the best for their pets, and as such is important to keep pet cat indoors, for their own safety as well as the safety of the local wildlife.
One of the reasons schools should have uniforms is because families could save money. An average cost of a uniform in JC penny for one student a year is about three hundred dollars . A normal family spends over five hundred to thousand dollars for clothing for a student. If public schools have uniforms students wouldn’t feel different which would help them feel better and concentrate in their lessons. If families would be able to save money on clothing they could spend it on other school expenses students have. School uniforms could also last more than a year. Even if you grow out of your school uniform you could pass it down to a younger sibling or cousin. Uniforms help the need of not buying so many cloths a year.
One of Franz Kafka's most well-known and most often criticized works is the short story, "Die Verwandlung," or "The Metamorphosis." "The Metamorphosis" is most unusual in that the first sentence is the climax; the rest of the story is mainly falling action (Greenburg 273). The reader learns that Gregor Samsa, the story's main character, has been turned into an enormous insect. Despite this fact, Gregor continues to act and think like any normal human would, which makes the beginning of the story both tragic and comical at the same time. However, one cannot help but wonder why Gregor has undergone this hideous transformation, and what purpose it could possibly serve in the story. Upon examination, it seems that Gregor's metamorphosis represents both his freedom from maintaining his entire financial stability and his family's freedom from their dependence upon Gregor.
The story The Metamorphosis revolves around Gregor Samsa, a devoted son and brother who works tirelessly to provide for his family, waking up finding out that he has been transformed into a larger than life insect. Franz Kafka enlightens the readers to how being dependent on one person can lead a family to being weak when that support system is ripped away from them. The situations that Gregor is put into knocks him down from the head of the family into nothingness while at the same time boosts his family from that nothingness into being a strong support system for each other. Gregor 's transformation, his dependency on his sister for food, his injury, the family choosing strangers over him, and ultimately his death are all things that lead to this downfall, or metamorphosis.
Cats and dogs are different in the way they bond with their owners. While I have always been more of a dog person, I do like certain cats. My favorite cats are Himalayan and Siamese. I have always thought that dogs were more affectionate than cats until I found out I was wrong. According to the Study Cats Bond Differently than Dogs, cats show affection to their owners, but they do not get attached like dogs. Also,
...haracter, Gregor, transforms into a cockroach in the beginning. Throughout the story, Gregor is portrayed as a “helpless bug” and is treated unfairly and poorly by his own family. His parents are more astonished than pitiful when they first see Gregor. Later on, his mother faints at the sight of him. His father throws apples at him because his mother fainted from the way he looks. Grete, in the beginning of the transformation, is nice and takes care of him. Later, she changes her mind about Gregor, quits taking care of him, and comes up with the idea to get rid of it. ‘If it was Gregor, he would have long ago seen that it’s impossible for human beings to live together with an animal like that,’ (139). Kafka, throughout the story, tries to get the reader to feel sympathy towards Gregor in many scenes, and it works because his family doesn’t show sympathy towards him.
In The Metamorphosis Kafka illustrates a grotesque story of a working salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking up one day to discover that his body resembles a bug. Through jarring, almost unrealistic narration, Kafka opens up the readers to a view of Gregor’s futile and disappointing life as a human bug. By captivating the reader with this imaginary world Kafka is able to introduce the idea that Gregor’s bug body resembles his human life. From the use of improbable symbolism Kafka provokes the reader to believe that Gregor turning into a bug is realistic and more authentic compared to his unauthentic life as a human.
After a while, it was such that if I was home, the cats would follow me where ever I went. Just like Stickeen who “was sure to be at his heels, provided I had not gone out.”(par. 7). Every time I drove into the driveway, regardless of where they would be, they would come running out to greet me. The minute I stepped out of the car, they would circle me brushing against my feet and look at me with excitement in their eyes. Then they would stand up on their hind limbs and ask for a petting on their
Today’s domestic house cats sure have changed and traveled far from their old wildcat ancestors across the world. Cats have traveled halfway across the world and now live around the world in various breeds and sizes. Even though they live today in their domesticated form they still retain some of the traits that their ancestors bestowed upon them. The African wildcat is believed to be the ancestor of all domestic cats, and they’re even still alive to this day. Over thousands of years of speciation, domestic house cats came to be from these wildcat ancestors.
This was the topic given to my group in the first presentation we gave. Well, while looking at the topic for the first time, the image of my pet at my home flashed on my mind. I won’t use “it” to refer my pet. He is one of us! The way he is with all of us, loving, cute, understanding, showing intelligent responses that always surprises us and makes us happy. Yes! He does understand our language (Telugu), he shows his interests/likes through his actions, he cries/shouts when we leave him. He always wants to go roam outside, when my mom says “come, we will go out” in Telugu it comes running with mouth wide open with happiness to her. When sometimes, I myself don’t know what is being
School Uniforms are a logical choice for the public school venue. Uniforms prevent students from a lower income background to be singled out for poorly made or cheap clothing, prevents use of gang colors, allows for certain safety measures, and allows teachers to form impressions of students based on actions and work rather than dress code choices.
Sitting here all alone where I was placed for good, watching all the different types of cars enter the parking lot, wondering if they have noticed me on the dirt surrounded by all the colorful and different types of wildlife. Scattered patches of green grass mixed with some unhealthy brown ones are pushing its way out from the ground. I have only one friend, but no family that I know of, I can't talk to my friend, but the reason why I call him a friend is because he is in the same situation as I am despite the fact he has a total different shape and design than me, having the letter P on top while the two Cs? underneath connecting each other and is standing on one tall skinny leg they have given him. Not much excitement ever happens around here except I am always afraid one day a tree which surrounds the area where I live fall on me due to strong wind. At some point of the day, a bird lands on me as it chirps to his friends- calling them to play. After the little get-together they have, the birds? kindly leave a little white spot on my brown polished smooth coating. However, I do not mind their little droppings they leave on me only to give me extra color on my boring brown, chipped up skin. It is almost the fall season and already I am covered in dead, dried up, and crackling leaves, hence, reminding me of the good old days. At random on a cheerful sunny day, a creature who presented himself as a human being approached me. Had his right hand to his ear talking into a black brick, for some reason why- he probably had no one to talk to- he then was holding it, pointing the strange looking black brick straight at me saying ?you?re going to be my homework for today? then added ?COMMUNITY COLLEGE? as he put back the black brick into his ear and started again with the talking, leaving large foot steps as he walked away. Yet, those words, ?COMMUNITY COLLEGE? kept echoing in my ears with his voice, realizing what was carved with a lighter and brighter brown color into my body after being chopped down and cut into a rectangular shape with smooth edges and two stiff legs.