THE CAT’S TABLE
By Michael Ondaatje
Icebreaker Question:
On page 196 Michael
says, “It would always be strangers like them, at the various Cat’s Tables of
my life, who would alter me”. Did you
have an experience at a young age of a stranger or acquaintance altering the
direction of your life’s journey, or some portion thereof?
Questions:
1.
The first chapter describes the
boy being put on a ship. Before you had
read the story, what did you imagine might have been the reason for his
journey?
2.
Why do you think the opening
passages of the book are told in third person?
3.
In the second chapter you learn
that he is being sent to his mother.
What did this say about his family situation in Sri Lanka (Ceylon)?
4.
There is never a very strong
description of Michael anywhere in the book, yet he is given the nickname
“Magpie”. Does this give you any insight
into his appearance or character?
[Note: Magpies love to steal
shiny things. Does this help?]
5.
We are 133 pages into the novel
before Ondaatje gives us an idea of what year it is. How does he use time – or the sense of
timelessness – to propel the story?
6.
Key main characters in the
novel are children. Do you think that
Ondaatje successfully recreates the observations and thought processes of a
child in his writing? How?
7.
For several characters – the
three boys and Emily among them – the journey represents a loss of
innocence. For whom does it have the
greatest impact?
8.
Discuss the three boys’
experience during the typhoon. How does
it affect their friendship and their attitude toward authority figures?
9.
There is a strong focus on
journeys and destinations as themes. How
is the voyage itself a parallel or metaphor for childhood?
10.
On page 75 the narrator
realizes “what is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places
where there is no power. Nothing much of
lasting value ever happens at the head table, held together by a familiar
rhetoric. Those who already have power
continue to glide along the familiar rut they have made for themselves.”
The anonymity of ocean travel
and the sense that aboard ship we know only what others want us to know about
them come into play at several points in the novel. What is Ondaatje saying about identity?
11.
Discuss the importance of some
of the seemingly minor characters at the table:
Mr. Mazappa, Mr. Fonseka, Mr Nevil, and/or Miss Lasqueti. Also, Asuntha and Emily (who were not at
their table, but are minor characters).
What do they contribute to the story?
12.
On page 155, the narrator
refers to Ramadhin as “the saint of our clandestine family”. What does he mean?
13.
What life changing event
happened to Michael after he fell asleep with Emily (pg.133-115). He becomes suddenly worried about meeting his
mother after so long and she (Emily) comforts him, but he says, “but for me, in
that cabin, it was the first time I looked at myself with a distant eye, just
as the neutral eyes of the distant young Queen had watched me all
morning.”: What do you think he saw in
himself?
14.
The main character, Michael,
explains that though he kept in contact with Ramadhin, Cassius he never saw
again. Why do you think this is? Emily and Michael also barely saw each other
again. Do you think this is linked?
15.
When describing the collapse of
his marriage, the narrator says, “Massi
said that sometimes, when things overwhelmed me, there was a trick or a habit I
had: I turned myself into something that
did not belong anywhere. I trusted
nothing I was told, not even what I witnessed (page 203). What made him behave this way? How did it affect his marriage?
16.
On page 208, the narrator tells
us about a master class given by the filmmaker Luc Dardenne in which: he
spoke of how viewers of his films should not assume they understood everything
about the characters. As members of an
audience we should never feel ourselves wiser than they; we do not have more
knowledge than the characters have about themselves. Why did Ondaatje give us this warning, so
far into the novel? What is he telling
us?
17.
When Emily says to the
narrator, “I don’t think you can love me into safety” (page 250), to what is
she referring? Why do you think Emily
wanted to see him again after so many years?
18.
[USE IF TIME PERMITS] On page 243, Michael says, “With just three
or four children at its centre, on a voyage whose clear map and sure destination
would suggest nothing to fear or unravel. For years I barely remembered
it.” Do you not find that odd? Why does he remember now?
19.
Many mysteries at the end of
the novel remain unexplored. Do you
think this was the right choice by the author?
Does this detract from the satisfaction of the ending?
20.
Michael Ondaatje claims that
this is just a work of fiction with no biographical content, yet the story
parallels his life and he even names the main character “Michael”. Do you think there is any significance to
this?
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