Cat's Eye

Cat's Eye Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

Present: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood starts with a short explanation of the narrator's view on time. She thinks of time as "having a slope, something you could see, like a series of liquid transparencies." She looks down through time like water with things either coming to the surface or not and where "nothing goes away." We also learn her brother Stephen is a little strange in appearance and manner.

Flashback: The next scene is a flashback to a particular time in the narrator's teen years. The narrator remembers herself and her best friend Cordelia at thirteen years old (they think they are best friends anyway). They are riding a streetcar looking and feeling tough, able to stare down anyone. They are being critical as usual. She remembers how they would analyze the "old" ladies on the streetcar and categorizing them as to how they dressed and made-up their faces. They talk about how their style would be at that age.

The narrator talks about not being able to give up her vanity yet at almost fifty year old, but vanity feels like a nuisance to her. Now that the narrator is back in the same town she has been thinking about Cordelia even though she hasn't seen her in a long time. She wonders about Cordelia and what she would do or say if she saw her again. She doesn't even think she would recognize Cordelia at all or that Cordelia would recognize her. The narrator imagines herself lying about her accomplishments to look better. She also thinks she would feel some satisfaction if she sees Cordelia tattered and worn looking or mugged and on life support or even better, in an iron lung. When she was young adults would scare the children by telling them they would be in an iron lung to deter them from doing things they wanted to like going swimming in a crowded pool.

Her fantasy was to see Cordelia in an iron lung not able to move or speak, but aware that her old friend could and they would stare at each other.

At this time we learn the narrator's name when she imagines herself saying, in a situation where she bumps into her accidentally, "Cordelia, it's me Elaine." She doesn't know if Cordelia would ignore her or be happy to see her. Then again, Elaine thinks she might ignore her in the first place or just shake her by the shoulders

Elaine is walking downtown while she has these thoughts. Elaine walks past the same place where they used to get off the streetcar, though the streetcars are not running anymore. She notices the buildings are no longer shabby, flat, and dowdy. There are restored buildings, with brass trim and plenty of neon lighted signs. It looks more affluent. Elaine doesn't look at the people in their fancy clothes. She does not analyze them as she used to. She looks down at the sidewalk while walking. Her throat feels tight and her fingers are bloody and chewed. She has a bad memory of the taste of blood.