The Catbird Seat

In The Catbird Seat, a short story by James Thurber has a lesson. The lesson or theme is to be careful with the innocent looking people. Mr. Martin the stories main character as well as the antagonist, develops a plan to get rid of Mrs. Barrows the protagonist. At first Mr. Martin wants to kill Mrs. Barrows but then he changes his mind and develops a plan to make her look like she had gone crazy. Mr. Martin is a very smart character. The story also has the theme of be careful how you present yourself. Mrs. Barrow was always outgoing and was always joking around while on the other hand Mr. Martin was quiet and a respected man. This turned out to be favorable to Mr. Martin. Thurber uses many similes but the one he uses the most is the phrase catbird seat which is used as a baseball term meaning to be clean or innocent. In this story I see it like a cat with feathers in his mouth looking sweet and innocent.

It was a very amusing story. It gave me the chills at how smart Mr. Martin was. I feel so bad for Mrs. Barrow she got her reputation destroyed. It was a very interesting story.