Three Passages

1. “I became a heavy drinker, and my need for alcohol soon grew into a terrible disease.” (16-17)

Think of reasons why a person can become a heavy drinker.

2. “I stopped taking care of them [the animals] and sometimes I was even cruel to them. But I was never cruel to Pluto.” (17)

Why do you think the man behaves differently towards Pluto? Does the cat have something different from the rest of the animals or the wife? Is it special for some reason? Does it represent something?

3. “There is something strange about the human heart. We humans seem to like hurting ourselves. Haven’t we all, a hundred times, done something stupid or evil just because we know we should not do it?” (18)

Do you agree? Can you empathize (understand, feel sorry for) with the narrator?

1. A reason why a person can become a heavy drinker is because he was sad or angry for something so he started to drink and it became a habit.

2. I think that the man behaves different with Pluto because he loved him more than he loved all the other animals and the cat was his best friend. The cat was different from the other animals because he was very clever. I think that the cat represents, at the begining love because the man was googd with him but at the end I think that it represents the revenge of the cat because the man killed Pluto.

3. I agree with the narrator because, like he had said, we sometimes do stupid things because we know we should not do them, that is why I feel sorry for him.