Thurber, James (Vol. 125) - Marilyn Underwood (essay date Summer 1982)
Marilyn Underwood (essay date Summer 1982)
SOURCE: "Thurber's 'The Catbird Seat,'" in The Explicator, Vol. 140, No. 4, Summer, 1982, pp. 49-50.
[In this brief essay, Underwood offers a previously overloooked explanation for the events of Thurber's classic story.]
Critics of James Thurber's "The Catbird Seat" invariably refer to his humorous tone, his control of language, and his effective characterization in this tight-plotting short story. But this is not all; one needs to dig deeper to unearth what devices Thurber uses to make this story the success it is. One device in particular has been overlooked by critics. A biologist would not have been so negligent: he would have looked at the catbird's seat and would have seen an instant correlation to the events and characters in Thurber's story.
Anyone who picks up a copy of Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds of Texas (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963) will find on page...
[The entire page is 746 words long]
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