Cat Person

“He offered to buy her some Red Vines to sustain her. At first, she deflected this with another joke, because she really did have to study, but he said, ‘No, I’m serious, stop fooling around and come now,’ so she put on a jacket over her pajamas and met him at the 7-Eleven.”

This is one of the first times the narrative portrays how Robert treats young women: He acts as though he is their father and commands them to obey his bidding. And again, Margot sacrifices her own desires and needs to appeal to him. Ultimately, Robert offers but is unable to get her Red Vines, an inability to satisfy which potentially foreshadows their sexual encounter.

“She thought he was going to go in for a kiss and prepared to duck and offer him her cheek, but instead of kissing her on the mouth he took her by the arm and kissed her gently on the forehead, as though she were something precious.”

Robert, perhaps sensing Margot’s apprehension, surprises her with a patronizing forehead kiss. Margot reads this as indicative of how much Robert values her. The narrative suggests that Margot is correct in her assertion that Robert views her as “something precious,” although Margot emphasizes the “precious” instead of the “something.” More accurately, Robert sees her as an object or “something” to be possessed.

“She learned that Robert had two cats, named Mu and Yan, and together they invented a complicated scenario in which her childhood cat, Pita, would send flirtatious texts to Yan, but whenever Pita talked to Mu she was formal and cold, because she was jealous of Mu’s relationship with Yan.”

The narrative implies a disconnect between Robert and Margot: Margot still goes home for the holidays and has a childhood cat, whereas Robert is an autonomous adult with his own cats. They are at different stages in their lives, even though they participate in the same fantasies. The story raises the question as to why Robert, as a man in his thirties, is so interested in a college student.

“When Margot returned to campus, she was eager to see Robert again, but he turned out to be surprisingly hard to pin down […] Margot didn’t like this; it felt as if the dynamic had shifted out of her favor, and when eventually he did ask her to go to a movie she agreed right away.”

It is possible that Robert was actually busy with work; however, the story suggests that this may be convenient and manipulative, a trap Robert sets to make him appear more desirable and give him the upper hand. Margot assumes that because she is more attractive and desirable, she is at an advantage in the relationship. However, Margot fails to understand the ways in which social systems of power—such as patriarchy—manifest in personal interactions.

“Just as she thought this, he said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to murder you,’ and she wondered if the discomfort in the car was her fault, because she was acting all jumpy and nervous, like the kind of girl who thought she was going to get murdered every time she went on a date.”

Instead of understanding that Robert is making her uncomfortable, Margot assumes that she is the one being weird. She suppresses her inklings of fear and convinces herself that she is at fault. This also demonstrates how Robert manipulates her, leaning into how women are socialized to appease men and to make her see him in a better light.

“At the theatre, he made a joke to the cashier at the concession stand about Red Vines, which fell flat in a way that embarrassed everyone involved, but Margot most of all.”

This episode with Red Vines shows how awkward Robert is, and how Margot is ambivalent about him. In his desire to charm, he doesn’t understand that other people don’t have the same background or understanding of things as him. Even though Margot is younger, she has a better understanding of social situations.

“There was a line to get inside, and, as they waited, she grew fidgety trying to figure out how to tell him what she needed to tell him, but she couldn’t, so when the bouncer asked to see her I.D. she just handed it to him.”

This quote embodies an unfolding narrative typically used in stream-of-consciousness works. Each portion of the sentence accumulates onto the next, separated as they are by commas. Such accumulation gives the appearance of inevitability, eradicating Margot’s agency—“she couldn’t, so when the bouncer asked to see her I.D. she just handed it to him.”

“When he asked her where she wanted to go for a drink, she named the place where she usually hung out, but he made a face and said that it was in the student ghetto and he’d take her somewhere better.”

Despite knowing that she is a student, Robert denigrates Margot for being young and having bad taste. He uses an offensive term, “ghetto,” and dismisses her ideas to assert his experience and authority. Robert’s dismissal of the undergrad bar suggests his later appearance in the same bar is a form of stalking. He has no other reason to visit the bar than to see Margot, even after Tamara has made it clear Margot wants nothing to do with him.

“Standing outside the bar, having been rejected in front of everyone, was humiliating enough, and now Robert was looking at her as if she’d done something wrong.”

Robert makes Margot feel shame and humiliation. After getting rejected from the bar, he ingratiates himself by saving the day, gaslighting her into sleeping with him. However, Margot only recognizes the feeling of being rejected and, potentially because of her youth, cannot see what Robert is doing. Though Robert did not plan on her not getting into the bar—he does seem genuinely surprised by her age—he knows how to capitalize on the situation, making her feel at fault and looking like the hero.

“She tried to bludgeon her resistance into submission by taking a sip of whiskey.”

Margot internalizes The Possibility of Violence women are often subject to in society. In her attempt to be what Robert wants her to be, she turns this violence against herself, demonstrating how she has absorbed the values of patriarchy. This internalization “bludgeons” Margot’s agency with the quintessential male drink: whiskey.

“During sex, he moved her though a series of positions with brusque efficiency, flipping her over, pushing her around, and she felt like a doll again, as she had outside the 7-Eleven, though not a precious one now—a doll made of rubber, flexible and resilient, a prop for the movie that was playing in his head.”

Robert treats Margot like an object. Roupenian uses stream-of-consciousness syntax to identify the ways that Margot’s humiliation accumulates in each movement of intercourse, as well as to indicate how trapped Margot feels. Because of how she’s been socialized, Margot does not feel she can get up and walk away, but rather has to see the humiliation of being made an object through to its conclusion. She feels she has no agency, as was foreshadowed when he kissed her on the forehead outside the 7-Eleven.

“But they both knew that it was a big deal, and Margot had a knot of fear in her stomach so solid that she thought she might retch.”

Despite how cavalier Tamara is when she sends Robert the message, both she and Margot understand that Margot’s rejection transgresses patriarchal norms. Essentially, Female Socialization teaches women to give men what they want, and Tamara’s text message has defied this by asserting female agency. This has physical consequences for Margot, who feels as though she might throw up: Her very body rebels against the transgression, even as Margot knows that it is what she wants.

“When Margot announced that Robert was there, everyone erupted in astonishment, and then they surrounded her and hustled her out of the bar as if she were the President and they were the Secret Service. It was all so over-the-top that she wondered if she was acting like a mean girl, but, at the same time, she truly did feel sick and scared.”

Due to the way she has been socialized, Margot attempts to ignore her feelings, even when Robert stalks her; Robert is going to an undergrad bar that he previously ridiculed to see Margot. Margot’s first concern is that she is being mean, even though she knows that her safety is at risk. In fact, even society (via her friends) is telling her that she is unsafe, and still she is concerned about being perceived as overly dramatic.