Summer Musser Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre

611 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Pre revolutionary france essay

Summer Musser Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint-Severin The great cat massacre of the Rue Saint-Séverin follows a group of workers in a printing shop as they find the entertainment of slaughtering alley cats as a means of getting back at their Master and Mistress. After the event, the workers perform re-enactments of the massacre for the sake of laughter. The source for Robert Darnton accounts of the massacre come from Nicholas Contat, who recounted the tales of events through the character Jerome. Both Jerome and Léveillé were apprentices of Jacques Vincent’s printing shop, who found the company of a feline companion more suitable than those of his workers. The room that Jerome and Léveillé were living in was filthy and provided little protection from the …show more content…

However, this was not even the worst part of their treatment. The cook who was supposed to give them the scraps from their master's meal would sell them and replace their food with rotten bits of meat that was meant for the cats instead. The Master’s wife adored the cats to no end; many of the felines had their portraits taken and were even feed roasted fowl for dinner. However, the final straw for the workers came during the night when all of the alley cats howl into the night just above the apprentice's bedroom, making it impossible to get a full night’s sleep. That following day, Léveillé came up with an idea that if they could not get a good night sleep then neither could their master. Léveillé who was skilled in mimicry made his way up to the roof of their master's house and howled all night just like a cat and the plan worked better than he had expected. After several nights of this treatment, the claimed they were bewitched and order the apprentices and journeymen to get rid of the cats. With

Show More
Related

  • The tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    Girls and women ran to the doors and to the elevator. The elevator operator saved as many as he could, but he had to stop running the elevator because the fire had spread too far to keep operating it safely. Sisters, mothers, and daughters were separated. For some, the last thing they saw of their family member was either them going down the elevator, or trapped in the building. The workers became truly desperate. Some threw themselves down the elevator shaft after the elevator stopped coming. Others rushed to the fire escape, but it collapsed under all the weight. The firemen were not able to catch any of the girls that jumped through the window because the nets broke, the ladder on the tuck only reached to the sixth floor, and the water from the fire hose only reached the seventh floor. The firefighters sprayed the building as high as they could in hopes that the mist would cool the fire and start to put it out. The women soon realized that escape was hopeless. Knowing that they were going to burn to death, some turned to the window and jumped. None of the girls that jumped survived the fall. Within twenty minutes of the fire breaking out, there were bodies lying on the street and people surrounding the building. The total number of victims of the fire was 146. Nineteen bodies were recovered from the elevator shaft, and fifty-four workers died by jumping out of windows. 12 The two founders, Harris and Blanck, made it out of the burning building alive, but some of their family members worked in the upper floors of the factory and were killed by the fire.

    Read More

  • The Massacre of the Champs de Mars

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    use as a study of "The massacre of the Champs de Mars". However, as a

    Read More

  • The Ludlow Massacre

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell-raiser.” Mother Jones followed her own advice concerning a small town in Las Animas County. The Ludlow Massacre occurred on April 20th, 1994, in the tent town of Ludlow, Colorado, the intricate web of events that lead to the events that happened in Ludlow are a look in to the conditions that some of the minorities and immigrants had to live in, during the early twentieth century.

    Read More

  • The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History

    3104 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Great Cat Massacre with out a doubt has one of the most unusual titles ever created especially for a book about history. Now this unusual title perhaps fits this book better than any other straight - forward title Mr. Darnton could have conjured. You see the text contained in the book isn’t just your standardized, boring, and redundant view of history. Most historical text looks at history from a political standpoint, of which king did what and what were the political effects of a war; then what were the politics like after the war, how were they changed and by which major political figures did the changing. Darnton instead of the old style of viewing history looks at it through the eyes of the people, and not the figures of history. Mr. Darnton’s book The Great Cat Massacre, reexamines French culture during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteen century with the eyes of the peasant’s. Robert Darnton looks at the writings of the peasant’s, and traces them to their origins and compares them to other text of similar origins and text, to create credible accounts or views of particular topics of the people during the era. In this review your going to see a summarization of the book, describing the various subjects of this book. After that I will comment on Mr. Darnton’s on some topics like his organization, writing style, and fairness to his subject material, then discuss the historical importance of the topics that Robert Darnton mentions in his book and give you my personal opinion of the book its self. Next I will discuss with you a battery of topics like why I choose the book, is the book controversial, what was the authors purpose for writing the book, what were some of the major theses, who or what Darnton’s sources were? Lastly I will end this review with a compare and contrast of potentially different views of what Robert Darnton is telling us in his book.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Clue-Cat In Clive Barker's The Thief Of Always

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story of The Thief of Always by Clive Barker, Harvey follows Rictus into the Holiday House and sees that there is dark magic there within Hood, and as the plot goes on Harvey goes to defeat Hood with the help of some special. Those are the roles of three cats, Blue-Cat, Clue-cat, and Stew-cat, where are though they are minor characters, the are vital to the story.As we go through the book the cats play a big part that helps the story make it to the end. The roles of the three cats are so important because they together advance the plot, foreshadow, and advance the themes.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe Symbolism

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the point of view is told from our unknown narrator, whom comes to help fix the house, and help comfort Roderick Usher, but does not end up helping him. Also the main theme is evil since the house is evil. After Roderick buries his dead sister, Madeline, she comes back to life and kills Roderick, the unknown narrator runs for his life, and watches the house collapse. In the other themes, madness and insanity, is because Roderick is having mental and emotional breakdowns because of his sister’s death. AN interesting fact about Poe is that he loved cats. Poe’s own cats name was Catterina.

    Read More

  • Tragedy: The Mountain Meadows Massacre

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are tons of tragedies that have happened in the world. One of those tragedies is a tragedy that has shocked a lot of people, the Mountain Meadows Massacre. During the Mountain Meadows Massacre about 120 people were killed. The Mountain Meadows Massacre happened in 1857. That was approximately 158 years ago.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe wrote that the single effect was the most important aspect of a short story, which everything must contribute to this effect. Poe’s gothic tale “The Black Cat” was written trying to achieve an effect of shocking insanity. In this first person narrative the narrator tells of his decline from sanity to madness, all because of an obsession with two (or possibly one) black cats. These ebony creatures finally drive him to take the life his wife, whose death he unsuccessfully tries to conceal.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    The presence of the two cats in the tale allows the narrator to see himself for who he truly is. In the beginning the narrator explains that his “tenderness of heart made him the jest of his companions”. (251) He also speaks of his love for animals that has remained with him from childhood into manhood. However, Poe contradicts this description of the narrator when he seems to become annoyed with the cat that he claims to love so much. While under the influence of alcohol the narrator is “fancied that the cat avoided his presence”(250) and as a result decides to brutally attack the cat. This black cat symbolizes the cruelty received by slaves from whites. The narrator not only “deliberately cuts one of the cats eyes from the sockets” (250) but he also goes on to hang the cat. Once the narrator successfully hangs the cat the tale begins to take a very dark and gothic-like turn. The racism and guilt of the narrator continues to haunt him once he has killed the black cat. Th...

    Read More

  • The Crucible Chapter 6

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    36 | Chapter 6 Home for the Holidays T the Yarmouth mail reached the inn at Yarmouth at night. I was to stay at an inn; not the inn with the clever waiter from last time, but a different one. Mr. Barkis came for me in the morning. His horse was lazy as ever. I told him that I have given Peggotty his message that BARKIS IS WILLING.

    Read More

  • Dark Themes In Edgar Allen Poe's 'Black Cat'

    1472 Words  | 3 Pages

    The narrator usually is telling the story almost like he is talking to someone, that someone being the readers. Poe sets up “Black Cat” with the narrator telling the readers he is not mad but then his story tells the exact opposite. Poe writes very Gothic style fiction in which Poe 's characters suffer from self-destruction. In the settings in “Black Cat” the narrator has already destroyed himself due to his alcoholism which he calls it a disease. As Poe uses keen detail on how the narrator goes into madness, readers see the narrator at the end as he tells that he is finally able to rest. The narrator says “It did not make its appearance during the night and thus for one night at least, since the introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquilly slept.” (700). He is able to rest because of the cat is not there to taunt him. Though he killed his wife it’s the fact that the beast, a name he calls the cat, is not there so he is able to have a great nights rest for the next 3 days. He follows up that quote with “The second and third day passes, and still my tormentor came not. Once again I breathed a freeman. The monster in terror had fled the premises forever” (700)! He has paranoia because of the cat. The cat was unlike Pluto because the cat showed him affection as later on in the years due to abuse Pluto ran away from the narrator. He finds it strange that the cat looks like Pluto, with the gouged eye and all,

    Read More

  • Who Is The Protagonist In The Black Cat

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poe was truly amazed, but came up with a perfectly sensible explanation- the cat had been cut from the tree when the crowd started and was thrown to the wall, thus making the odd

    Read More

  • The Black Cat Analysis

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...at the hands of his master. The mutilation of its eye, hanging it to death from a tree and killing his wife, which had shown the cat love. There are two interpretations you can take away from this story, the logic of guilt or supernatural fantasy. Which conclusion will you take?

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Black Cat

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    When he attempts to end the cat with an axe, the creature, like guilt, is unable to be destroyed. Instead, the axe falls on his wife. Since the narrator cannot end his source of guilt, he takes his frustration out on his wife and murders her. After this second act of killing the innocent, the black cat disappears. The narrator only feels a hint of guilt and no embarrassment. That night, he “…slept even with the burden of murder upon [his] soul” (723). He is so far gone into his sin that he no longer feels convicted or ashamed of his

    Read More

  • The Ferocity of the Peasants

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the French Revolution, there were many controversies between the peasants and the aristocracy. In A Tale Of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, most of the peasants are revolutionaries fighting against their nobility. Dickens’ use of imagery throughout the novel tries to sway the reader’s opinions about the peasants. Charles Dickens depicts the French Revolution well with the images of the novel as well as the tone he uses. Throughout the novel, Dickens illustrates through his imagery how the peasants change from poor, secretive, and then on to vicious.

    Read More

More about Summer Musser Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre

Open Document