Cathy (Queen of Cats) (V. 5, 6)


                 Cathy (Queen of Cats) serves as a picture of innocent yet insightful gossip in the Mango Street neighborhood. She may be recognized as Esperanza’s first ‘friend,’ however, their relationship revolves entirely around Cathy’s individual opinion of the people around them. The opening line of the vignette dedicated to the Queen of Cats is a seemingly blatant lie where Cathy claims that she is “...the great great grand cousin of the queen of France” (12). Cathy resides in the Mango Street neighborhood and seems to consistently recognize the negative side of her neighbors. It has been speculated that Cathy gains this information from her parents, but only her father is explicitly mentioned. Cathy promises Esperanza that she will be her friend, but only until the family moves away the following Tuesday. Cathy claims that the motive for moving away is that “the neighborhood is getting bad” (13). Logic would suggest that Cathy could potentially not be of the same race as Esperanza, as the existence of the queen of France in Cathy’s bloodline is mentioned several times. This factor would lead one to determine that Cathy was referring to immigrant families moving in, thus resulting in the neighborhood being viewed as deteriorating in her family’s eyes. Cathy also owns numerous cats, which could be viewed as a reflection of her economic status but on the surface gives her a fun nickname. 


        While she does not appear to have very many definable emotions herself, Cathy expresses multiple opinions of other people as she talks to Esperanza. Cathy best identifies alongside the album Taylor Swift otherwise known as Debut. The reader finds themselves disliking Cathy compared to some of the other characters, although moments of humor and pleasure make up for it, similar to tracks such as Picture to Burn and Our Song from Debut. Similar to Taylor, Cathy is confused and bases her words on what her parents tell her. She has little experience living in a society (the country music industry, see the parallels yet?). 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alicia (Who Sees Mice) (V. 14, 42)

Image
  Alicia (who sees mice) is portrayed as a role model for Esperanza in her hopes of leaving Mango Street to begin a new life of her own. Vignette 14 describes Alicia in the place of her deceased mother, as she must take on responsibility in the household that she might not have otherwise had to take on. The common structure of the household and the corresponding responsibilities within the households on Mango Street become evident as Alicia is now the oldest and must make tortillas in place of her mother. Alicia must take “...two trains and a bus” in order to reach the university that she attends. Alicia has taken on her mother’s exhaustion, not as a genetic illness but as an inherited lifestyle. This exhaustion is why Alicia sees mice that do not exist. Esperanza mentions that Alicia continues in this lifestyle in order to perform some kind of escape from the factories that she would otherwise dwell within. Alicia seems to have a deeper and more realistic grasp of the true possi...
Read more

Rachel and Lucy (V. 6, 17)

Image
                    Rachel and Lucy are first mentioned in vignette six as they desire to buy a bike from a boy named Tito with the help of Esperanza (and Nenny’s money). Despite Cathy’s warnings, Esperanza assists them in their purchase, thus forging a new bond of friendship between the girls. Esperanza is portrayed as slightly more intelligent than Rachel and Lucy as she corrects them grammatically, similar to how I hope that you will correct me grammatically if you find errors in these entries (15). The bike serves as a foundation for the three-way friendship, allowing Esperanza to laugh with her friends (16). This would not be influential if it were not for the fact that Esperanza did not laugh with Cathy, her original friend who she shed quickly in light of this new opportunity. One of the most influential vignettes in the growth and development of Esperanza is vignette 17 as Esperanza, Rachel, and Lucy come to the profo...
Read more