The Garden of Stubborn Cats PDF

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Ashlee Barcenas Ms. Gillhespy LIT 2020 November 5th 2014 The Garden of Stubborn Cats The story starts out reminiscing about the past and how the city of man and the city of cats were once the same thing. At one point things were spacious, and without numerous automobiles that posed danger to the cats. As time passed and cities rose even higher, soon all that remained would be alley ways, small empty spaces endlessly sprawling in between one building from the next. In this vertical city and network of cavities down below, the cat population of all types, with owners or astray continued to roam the concrete jungle of skyscrapers. Told from the third person point of view, the narrator in The Garden of Stubborn Cats serves as a witness to the past, present, and future regarding the cats in this unidentified metropolis. When a worker named Marcovaldo meets a local cat during his lunch break, he soon strikes up a friendship in which the two take a daily afternoon stroll. As the cat introduces him to other felines, and new territories although Marcovaldo still feels he is being held back from something even more secret in the city’s realm of cats. After being taken to a high class restaurant by his feline friend, and peering in through the window, he notices a tank of large trout. After receiving his fishing line and hook, he managed to catch a fish and without a single person noticing, pulls it up and out of their spying window. The cat immediately pounces, and runs away with the trout. After chasing the line through many alleys, he finds himself at an oasis like area in the massive city, a small run down garden sitting next to an old house, with two trees and a small pond. What he discovers is well known to the nearby residents who soon fill him in.

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The small patch of land is owned by a mysterious old lady, and is inhabited by the hundreds of cats, birds, and frogs that gather there. Marcovaldo knocks on the women’s door and finds out the truth behind the place and why she would never sell it. Eventually the woman dies, the place is finally contracted out for a large building to be built, and the construction process starts. The only problem is, all of the cats, birds, and frogs in every bucket of water are making the building process very difficult, from the start. While Calvino uncovers the relationship of Marcovaldo, his friend “Tabby the cat ”, and the owner of the garden “Marchesa”, his story is actually one of incident, showing how the cat’s stubbornness to not back down created an effect that nature can and will persevere anywhere, even in the most unlikely places, for the sake of survival. Even when the humans destroy the cats’ habitat with skyscrapers and buildings they find a way to survive. Starting out with the history of urbanization and how cats used to live among people compared to now, the complication is the urbanization of America, and how domesticated cats have to adapt to a place nothing like what their ancestors experienced. Next is the escalation, in which cities are now growing very compact together, and vertically, completely eliminating the ability to roam on top of rooftops and structures that were in the past around the same height with each other. The story is continuing to escalate as Marcovaldo discovers more and more of his friends secret world, and he talks to Marchesa to find out about the status of her land and herself. The climax takes place once Marchesa passes away, and city contractors finally have gained control of the city’s wildlife safe haven, and plan to build a massive building in the last open piece of real estate downtown. Denouement occurs in the story once builders start to lay the foundation, yet are having extreme trouble with all of the cats, birds, and frogs refusing to leave their home.

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The first example of a passage that represents the element of survival and adaptation of nature is when Marcovaldo is suddenly abandoned by his friends, and all the cats have vanished out of sight. It reads, “(t)heir realm had territories, ceremonies, customs that it was not yet granted to him to discover” (451) . This passage adds almost a sort of secrecy about their lifestyle, it creates an effect on the reader that these cats do not just sit around and sleep all day, and they had complex everyday lives, in a place where animals really should not be able to survive in. Another passage that shows just how dedicated and “stubborn” these cats really are is when Marcovaldo is talking to Marchesa, the owner of the land. She said, “(w)hen I think of all the damage I suffer because of the cats! Ah, fine state of affairs! I’m not responsible for anything! I can’t tell you what I’ve lost! Thanks to those cats, who’ve occupied my house and garden for years! My life at the mercy of those animals! Go and find the owners! Make them pay damages! Damages? A whole life destroyed! A prisoner here, unable to move a step!”(451). First off, the irony in this passage is incredible, how the cats trapped in a never ending city have convinced this lady she is a prisoner to them. People feel annoyed by the presence of the creatures but the humans are the real nuisances to the animals. Poor old Marchesa goes on to talk about how they chase and follow her everywhere she goes, how they attack and hiss at contractors and lawyers trying to buy the land, in complete distress. Even though Marchesa is elderly and very distraught, these cats are so stubborn they have convinced her that they control her very life. This shows to the reader just how persistent these cats are. They are not just going to lie down and let their one last place of happiness be taken away from them. The cats are smart and cunning; they know how to get results, in their adaptation for survival in a world where they do not belong.

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In this short story written by Italo Calvino, taking place in a city, the element of nature’s adaptation and will to survive is most important, because it is almost the silver lining in the entire story. Set in an urban and dirty world, no place for wildlife, the cats are able to somewhat thrive, kind of like weeds growing in the cracks of asphalt and sidewalk concrete. With the complication of having to live in a concrete jungle, not just cats but also birds and frogs are able to persists and live on. Even once they find a safe haven, a slice of what their actual environment should be like, they still have to fight for what’s theirs. All the way until the end and denouement, in which the land is finally bought, and the construction starts to take place, yet nature perseveres....