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.
Themes
The Artistry of Communication
By the end of Hate That Cat, Jack realizes that his mother’s method of communication—signing words with her hands—possesses elements of artistry, just as the line between poetry and more ordinary, informative texts is blurred. These areas of overlap, between messages and art, illuminate the idea that any kind of communication can transcend mere information and become something special. Jack comes to see that the spark of the extraordinary can exist in even the most ordinary message.
As Jack uses poetry to try to understand his mother’s experience of the world and its sounds, he begins to think of her hands as creators of art rather than simply the way she interacts with others. He says, “I cannot explain / how my mother paints / words / with / her / hands / but / she / does” (73). Just as he tries to create art with spoken words and sounds, Jack realizes that his mother creates art with her hands: that they “paint words” together when they communicate. Thus, this isn’t something only his mother can do—rather, it is something they both can do. Just as auditory sounds can combine to produce certain artistic effects—through poetic devices like alliteration or onomatopoeia—Jack realizes that his mother makes words without sound and that there is beauty and meaning in that ability, just as there is in his ability to appreciate meanings and feelings that are created or captured by sound. In discovering this, Jack develops a deeper understanding of his mother’s experience of the world and begins to recognize the various communicative forms artistry can take.
Further, Jack comes to appreciate how even apparently ordinary communication can be poetic. For instance, in stark contrast to Uncle Bill, who believes poetry must check off a list of various attributes to qualify as poetry, Jack learns to value “the small ordinary things” that poets like William Carlos Williams write about because he sees them as meaningful (95). Uncle Bill believes poetry should address “LARGE things!” like death and tragedy and that poems like those written by Williams are tantamount to “little notes / scribbled on scrap paper” (85). Jack, on the other hand, appreciates how poetry conveys information and emotion about even small lived moments. A simple note to apologize for eating all the plums can achieve artistry through vivid description just as a message intended to communicate information can employ metaphors or alliteration to emphasize a point. The very fact that Jack writes his notes to Miss Stretchberry in verse throughout the entirety of the novel confirms this and points to the artistry of communication that depends on the interpreter to appreciate it.
The Emotional Power of Poetry
The novel focuses on poetry’s ability to aid both writer and reader in working through difficult feelings like grief or confusion. It helps people look for meaning and connection in life’s events, both large and small. Jack’s writing shows that poetry has the power to connect individuals on an emotional level.
Poetry’s emotional power makes it a useful tool for Jack to use as he works out his own difficult and challenging emotions. Though he doesn’t consciously realize why he writes in verse—even when he doesn’t have to—his poems express his fears and worries. For example, when he explains why he does not want a cat, saying that it could get “squished / by a car / going fast / with many many miles to go / before it sleeps” (33), the poetic language and techniques he uses convey emotion more concisely and more successfully than prose could. First, he uses the onomatopoetic word, “squished,” which demonstrates the tragedy and violence of death. The powerlessness of a small animal to defend itself against a speeding car is conveyed by this choice, as is the horror of witnessing—and especially hearing the sound of—an animal being run over, which is something that Jack has previously experienced when he witnessed his dog, Sky, die. Next, Jack uses an allusion to Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” borrowing the empathy a reader might feel for that poem’s speaker to understand why the driver of the car was speeding in the first place. The speaker in Frost’s poem does not want to move on from the tranquil snowy wood through which he travels, but he is compelled to do so because he has more responsibilities to which he must attend. Jack assumes that the car’s driver has something urgent to do, and this makes him drive too fast so that he doesn’t see the animal or have time to swerve. Finally, Jack uses short lines that slow the pace of the text, introducing frequent pauses, mimicking his depressed emotions, and emphasizing, along with his italics, the most significant words. Through his use of verse, Jack reveals both his pain from Sky’s death and his fear that he might have to experience another such moment.
The emotional power of poetry also allows people to connect through shared experiences. This is what happens when Jack shares a poem with his mother. The rhythm of Christopher Myers’s “Black Cat” helps Jack’s mom to understand Jack’s interest in poetry and the way it affects him, creating an opportunity for a stronger emotional bond between them. When he taps the poem’s rhythm as he reads it, she is very interested, asking him to read it again. She then reads the poem a third time, silently to herself, tapping the rhythm with her fingers. When she finishes, she “tapped her heart / HARD-soft HARD-soft,” indicating a similarity between the poem’s rhythm and her own heartbeat (53). The rhythm is the same, and it is Jack’s modeling of the poem’s rhythm that helps her to recognize this. Further, tapping her heart could also signify her love for Jack and her appreciation for the fact that she gets to share his interests. She physically links the poem to her heart, showing that she has been deeply emotionally affected by the poem and by her son’s desire to engage with her. This demonstrates poetry’s ability to evoke emotional and creative connections.
The Link Between Creativity and Artistic Freedom
Miss Stretchberry understands that students are most creative when they are allowed to play with language without fear of being told they are wrong or that something they invent isn’t real or possible. Jack enjoys expressing himself through writing when he is given artistic freedom, and he creates poems he likes, which gives him a sense of pride. However, when he feels confined by rigid rules about poetry and writing, he experiences creative paralysis. In this way, the novel argues that creativity depends on artistic freedom.
Miss Stretchberry emphasizes imagination and freedom in her lessons, encouraging her students not to be hemmed in by rules. When she wants to teach the class about alliteration, for example, she brings out various objects to inspire the class and encourages them to be imaginative and even silly. Jack enjoys the experience. Of the children’s alliterative inventions of purple pickles and chocolate chalk, Jack writes, “my uncle Bill would probably say / we are WRONG / even though it is fun / to imagine” these items (15). The success of Miss Stretchberry’s method is realized when Jack reports how, later, when she reads a poem aloud to the class, he “hear[s] alliteration popping out / everywhere” (37). Though Uncle Bill might tell the class that their examples are not good ones because they aren’t true to life, Miss Stretchberry puts no such limitations on them, and this freedom makes the learning “fun,” and thus, successful.
When Jack feels that his creativity must be confined to the use of traditional poetic devices, he gets discouraged, but when he is freed of those conditions, he is much more adventurous and creative. For instance, after reading Tennyson, who uses many poetic devices in his work, Jack feels he’ll never be able to match Tennyson’s skill. He says: “I feel stupid. / I am a bad writer. / I’m going to quit” (55). Feeling restricted by the need to match Tennyson’s use of these devices, Jack determines that his skill is inadequate, and he shuts down. However, once Miss Stretchberry unburdens him of these stylistic requirements, telling him that the content of his poems is as important as any poem written by Tennyson, he thanks her for reminding him that “it is the thoughts in our heads / that are most important” (56). Immediately after, Jack’s writing begins to employ a number of poetic devices—musical and figurative—proving that he can be much more creative when he is granted the freedom to write without checking off a list of elements he must include. While Jack struggles to be creative in the presence of restrictions, his originality and imagination flourish when he is free to create without limits.
Related Titles
By Sharon Creech
