27 pages • 54 minutes read
Kristen RoupenianCat Person
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Red Vines
Red Vines are the reason that Margot and Robert interact in the first place: Margot gently mocks Robert’s choice of movie food, and it becomes a joke between them. The presence of Red Vines, much like Margot’s initial attraction to Robert, wanes throughout the piece. In fact, the first appearance of Red Vines at the movie theater when Margot and Robbie meet is the only time Red Vines physically manifest in the story: after, they are only Robert’s unfulfilled promise to Margot. This might foreshadow Robert’s inability to sexually satisfy Margot later on, even as Margot clings to the hope of their presence.
Red Vines might also signify The Question of Stranger Danger: They are the only thing Margot knows about Robert when she gives him her phone number. The candy represents his relative strangeness to her and how little she knows about him. In this way, they signify the dissonance between Robert and Margot: They are of different generations, as their candy preferences suggest.
Cats
Other than his propensity to eat Red Vines at the movies, Margot knows that Robert has cats—at least, so he alleges. Margot feels connected to Robert based on the bond that she thinks they cultivate through texting about cats. Margot likes working for Robert’s attention and demonstrating her wit as she crafts fantasies about her childhood cat’s relation to Robert’s two cats. Again, this demonstrates the divide between Robert and Margot: Margot is not yet adult enough to have cats of her own and so must concoct these stories about her childhood cat, whereas Robert is an adult who lives on his own and has two cats that he presumably cares for. They are in stages in their life, suggesting that it is inappropriate for Robert to pursue Margot.
The presence of cats is also crucial to the story—as the title suggests—because Robert’s cat ownership is one of only a few things that Margot knows about him. Through fairly superficial characteristics, Margot creates an image of Robert based on her own fantasies. This again alludes to the fact that Robert is a relative stranger to her. When she enters his home, there are no cats to be found, which Margot finds jarring. The absence of cats makes Margot believe Robert is a relative stranger and capable of violence, even though the narrative shows that it is only when Robert becomes familiar that he causes Margot the most harm via cruel text messages.
Forehead Kissing
Twice in the story, Robert kisses Margot’s forehead. The first time happens after their first kind-of date where Robert takes her to a convenience store to buy her snacks. Margot expects him to kiss her romantically and is surprised when he kisses her forehead. This may be read as patronizing; it shows Margot’s relative youth and the fact that Robert could literally be her father. However, Margot interprets his actions as sweet. Due to Female Socialization, she considers his actions valid, and assumes that his kissing her on the forehead means she is precious.
The second time he kisses her on the forehead makes her shudder. It happens after they have sex, and Robert pours his feelings into her. This time, Margot does not feel precious, but like “a slug he had poured salt on” (Paragraph 96). This is the first inkling Margot has that her socialization has led her down the wrong path; she feels used and wants to disappear. The repeated forehead kissing suggests that Robert does not and cannot think of Margot as an equal; instead, he views her as an object to be used. His repeated patronization makes Margot question, potentially for the first time, how Robert views her; once she considers this, she feels dirty. Her shame raises the issue of consent, and whether Margot gave hers.
