The Black Cat - Discussion Qs

1. Discuss the significance of the following quote: “There is something unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of man.”
2. What is the significance of the cat’s name, Pluto?
3. Why did the narrator initially restrain himself from maltreating the cat while maltreating other animals?
4. Why does he eventually mistreat the cat?
5. Describe the narrator’s feelings after abusing the cat. Why is that significant?
6. How does the narrator define “perverseness”? Do you agree with his definition? Do you agree that it is human nature?
7. Discuss the significance of the following quote: “[I] hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense; because I knew that in doing so I was committing a sin.”

Everybody is capable of loving one another dearly. For the one that we love, we usually test their love to see if they feel the same way. In The Black Cat, Pluto is a significance name for a cat, because Pluto is a big planet and the cat is a big part of the family. The narrator maltreated other animals except the cat, because he loves the cat and it’s because they are friends. However, he later mistreats the cat, because he hates the cat now. He now hates everything that he used to love. After maltreating the cat, he feels guilty, but at the same time he feels good about it. This is the part when he realizes that human are capable of doing so many things and that we are not who we are appear to be. His pervertness, which is doing something awful and terrible, is sickening. He did something horrible to the cat. He did it because he knows that it’s the wrong thing to do in the first place.