Hate That Cat Analysis

1. In the novel, Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech, gaining unexpected friendship reveals itself as a major theme. In the beginning of the book, Jack states many times that he is not a fan of cats (1). After telling us the traumatic story of how a cat once attacked him while attempting to rescue it out of a tree, you can detect, from this tone, the hatred Jack felt toward the cat preceding the quarrel between them (46). Hence, we see his mind set on his attitude toward cats, until poetry makes an entrance. On December 18th, he learns that his favorite author, Mr. Walter Dean Myers’ son, wrote a book called Black Cat (50). Having heard this, Jack was shocked and had to read the book for himself. We, the reader, then witness his experience reading …show more content…
Poetry in Hate That Cat plays a vital role in Jack’s life, just like it did in Love That Dog. In the beginning, Jack shows a very prominent indifference towards all cats. He is also looked down on by his uncle who said his poetry, about Sky, was not poetry at all, but rather just random thoughts (6). Bill, his uncle, also told him all poetry must rhyme and contain regular meter, but Jack did not agree (7). In fact, in Miss. Stretchberry’s classroom you can infer, from Jack’s journal, that she tells her kids poetry is not strictly one thing or idea; it is something that comes directly from the authors’ point of view and thoughts (9). Additionally, you can see that his mother also supports Jack’s poetry, giving him the confidence he needed to continue writing (52). Specifically, after one lesson in class, Jack writes in his journal how poetry can vary in length, and it does not matter whether he writes his lines short or long (9). This is the first time we see Jack stand up for his poems and what he believes they should consist of, showing the reader how much he has …show more content…
After writing a poem about his beloved kitten titled So Much, we begin to see Jack really enjoy different poetry about cats (61). On January 14th, a poem called The Naming of Cats really strikes Jack’s attention (63). Infatuated by the fact that cats might possibly have their own secret names, Jack decides to “unfreeze” his brain and try to write a simile (64). By doing this we can see that through the poem The Naming of Cats, Jack found a glimmer of confidence to begin writing once again. In conclusion, this conveys how much he has grown not just as a writer but also a