The Cat's Table By Michael Ondaatje

Reading The Cat’s Table was an eye opener for me as I watched Michael Ondaatje’s young characters make bad decisions and learn from their mistakes. The young narrator named Michael, narrates his 21-day journey at the age eleven as he travels across the world to live with his mother, someone he has really no relationship with. He encounters people on the ship who become his friends that later on help shape him as a person. Ondaatje continuously demonstrates Michael’s innocence which leads to some of his most absurd actions and consequences. In so doing, Ondaatje encourages us to consider how innocence allows us to make decisions that are both risky yet important. It is only through making mistakes and being willing to look back at those …show more content…
“He went up the gangplank, watching only the path of his feet—nothing ahead of him existed—and continued till he faced the dark harbour and sea” (Ondaatje, 4). Not like the normal child that would be elated to be going “away”, Michael isolates himself as he joins the others who are entering the ship for the first time. Earlier on, Michael kept himself overly closed off when meeting the other children, demonstrating his fear for being on the ship without an adult’s supervision. “In spite of resulting curfew, Ramadan, Cassius, and I slipped from our cabins that night, went along the precarious half-lit stairways, and waited for the prisoner to emerge” (Ondaatje, 19). Michael’s isolation interferes with his bonding experiences with the children he is around on the boat. He and the boys have fun adventures but do not get to know each other more than their hangouts. They are busy breaking the rules of the ship instead of spending the time to understand why they are all on the voyage without an adult, for instance. Other than Emily, Michael has not opened up to anyone else on the …show more content…
Michael’s life back in Sri Lanka with his aunt and uncle had him closed off because of the type of school he attended. Having to rush his maturity at a young age forced away his childhood fun and disobedience, whereas he finds his kid-like tendencies and behaviors on the ship with the other boys that are around his age. “We needed to stay up to witness what took place on the ship late at night, but we were already exhausted from waking before sunrise” (Ondaatje, 50). Michael’s obliviousness to the events around him develops, just as his friendships with the others on board develop as well. The boys and him find excitement in spying on the elders apart of the voyage as they begin to become more comfortable with each other as the days pass. They make spying a daily job for themselves in a way of having fun although they do not have any knowledge of what they hear during their time of