44 pages • 1 hour read
Sharon CreechHate That Cat
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 98-125Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 98-125 Summary
This section covers Jack’s poems and notes between March 26 and June 5. Jack writes that Skitter McKitter ran away, calling it a tragedy regardless of what Uncle Bill would say about it. He marvels at how much he loves this cat, especially after hating cats, and after such a short amount of time. His mother signs the word cat and then taps her heart. Almost a week later, Skitter is still missing, and their house feels empty. They’ve put out milk, but the only cat who drinks it is the hated black cat from the bus stop. Jack gets another postcard from Walter Dean Myers, telling him that Myers’s cat has died. That cat was old and lived a long time, but Myers still misses him. Jack addresses a poem to Skitter, asking why the cat left home. Almost 10 days later, Jack writes that Skitter has returned. He writes another verse inspired by Williams: “So much depends upon / a black kitten / mewing outside” the door (107). The fat black cat, the mean one, begins to make noise to get someone’s attention, and beside it lies Skitter, injured and quietly mewing. The mean cat “protectively” paws Skitter before nudging her into Jack’s hand. Jack leaves the door open for the big cat, believing that this cat saved Skitter and brought her home, but it does not come in. Jack is sorry now that he hated the cat, and he is grateful Skitter is home.
The next time Jack writes, a week later, he composes a poem about Skitter, inspired by Tennyson’s “The Eagle.” A week after this, he writes “The Purr,” inspired by Poe’s poem, “The Bells.” The following week, he writes to thank Miss Stretchberry for showing him all the cat poems and the books that use poems to tell a story. He mentions one he’s already finished, wondering if the poet is “(alive?),” and then mentions four others he’s planning to read, wondering if each of those four authors is still alive, too. He feels he has a “treasure of words” now (115). He writes a poem, inspired by Poe, called “Silent Sounds of Mom,” all about how she “sings / in a swish and a bound” with her hands (116).
Miss Stretchberry’s class has a “Poet’s Day,” and students hang pictures of famous poets, with some of their famous poems, around the classroom. Jack writes about how much he enjoys that day, though he wishes every poet was still alive and that a classmate hadn’t written “DEAD” next to all the ones who have died. Still, Jack feels that their words are still present, just waiting to be read again or discovered by someone new. He writes about Skitter McKitter in a poem called “Love That Cat,” inspired by Myers. The fat black cat still comes by for milk, which Jack happily provides, and it licks Skitter’s head before leaving again. Jack thanks Miss Stretchberry for saying nice things about him to his parents when they came to school the day before for parents’ night. Though his mother doesn’t usually come, Miss Stretchberry said Jack could translate everyone’s speech into sign language for her, and despite being a little embarrassed in front of so many people, Jack did, and it made him feel really good. In his final poem of the year, called “This Is Just to Say,” Jack addresses his mother, promising to listen for her, saying that he will write down all the sounds in the world so that she can hear them as well.
Pages 98-125 Analysis
This section of the novel focuses on The Emotional Power of Poetry, showing how writing helps Jack process his emotions and work through them. By writing about Skitter McKitter’s disappearance, Jack can identify how this situation makes him feel, which is the first step for him to deal with his big feelings. He writes of the “big / emptiness” in the house, “just like there was / when [his] dog Sky / died” (102). He already knows grief, and he once again feels the same intense pain that he felt when Sky died. A pet’s loss leaves a palpable “emptiness” in his house, and through identifying his sorrow and its cause in his poem, Jack is better prepared to deal with it. Writing helps Jack as it empowers him to build his own emotional assessment of a situation. In his poem, he addresses Skitter, saying: “Here is your home. / Why did you go?” (106). These lines convey his confusion about why the kitten would leave a place where she is so loved; though Jack knows on a practical level that the kitten didn’t run away intentionally and likely lost her way, he is able to express his feelings of abandonment through his poetry. When Skitter returns home, it becomes true that “So much depends upon” her presence in the house (107); Jack’s hope and his faith in love are restored by the kitten’s reappearance, which his poem conveys succinctly.
As Jack’s understanding of the emotional power of poetry grows, so does his awareness of The Artistry of Communication. Though Jack still isn’t comfortable with the idea of loss—made evident by his continued concern about whether the poets whose work he reads are still alive—he recognizes that their words have gained a life of their own. He says their words are “still / there,” waiting to be enjoyed again by readers who love them and to be discovered by new fans. Since the work and words survive, this mitigates the grief Jack feels concerning the death of the writers. He realizes that ideas conveyed creatively and memorably live on eternally in the minds of all who enjoy them.
Jack, too, becomes more confident in his ability to convey his ideas memorably and uniquely in his writing. In his poem, “The Kitten,” Jack employs alliteration, imagery, simile, and rhyme to describe how Skitter paws at a package, leaps like an acrobat, and lands in a heap. His earlier concern that he was not a real poet because he could not use these devices—as Tennyson does—no longer holds him back or causes self-doubt. Jack’s final poem in the novel, titled “This Is Just to Say,” addresses his mother and manages to memorably express his emotional truth. In the poem, Jack blends his words with those inspired by other writers; he is clearly inspired by the poems of Williams, Tennyson, and Poe that Miss Stretchberry has brought into the class. However, the poignancy Jack achieves with this poem is a feat he accomplishes on his own as he promises his mother that he will write down for her even the sounds that are indescribable. Jack focuses on the emotional truth the words convey, which makes the poem resonate. He has made what he once deemed “IM-POSS-I-BLE” possible through his willingness to step out of his comfort zone and apply himself to communicating authentically and creatively, underscoring the artistry of communication.
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By Sharon Creech
