The Fantastic in Fiction

Within the story of “Cat ‘N’ Mouse” by Steven Millhauser, the cat tirelessly spends all of his time attempting to capture and kill the mouse, while on the other hand, the mouse tries to relax in his little home along with outsmarting the cat on his cheese outings. The author is detailed in the schemes throughout, while giving the true sense of a cartoon, implementing the common genre with dynamite, hearts beating so hard they protrude from the chest, being electrified by lightning indoors, hearts as eyes, and many other troupes of unrealistic happenings where the cat survives. The surprising twist in this commonly seen theme was the psychological thinking toward the end. There is the instance of where the mouse is thinking about his relationship with the cat, wondering whether they could ever be friends. Then at the very end, just as the cat is about to destroy the mouse (which would complete his mission), he takes a moment to contemplate if it’s “conceivable that he may miss the mouse,” and second guessing if he actually wants the mouse out of his life. Due to the cat’s second guessing, the mouse does not hesitate to erase the entire cat, and then himself. Growing more attached to the two characters as the two developed, it seems to give a reader hope that the two need each other and could one day live in peace, which made the demise of both of them not expected, especially as the characters, as similar TV shows, are “supposed to” live on, with the two continuing their scheming and outsmarting forever. Although the two are both gone, the mouse possibly could have thought that it was better to be erased than to live without the cat, who gave him not only entertainment but purpose.