Response To Reading "The Kitten"

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

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The short story I am wrinting this response for is "The Kitten" by Alexander Reid . It is set on a farm a long time ago . That it is evident because the roof of the farm house is thatched, also butter churns are used a lot less often now . We can tell it is in Scotland because of the dialect speech."So thats wur shes been" The story begins with the hired man discovering the farm cat with her newborn kittens. The farmer instructs the hired man to get rid of the kittens. It is a story about one of the kittens getting the better of the hired man.

The hired man is not very intelligent and pays very little attenion to detail. This has been eveident to me because of his actions, and his ignoring the markings on the kittens, which would have told him they were half wildcat.

The hired man doesn't care about killing the kittens at first , because it is just another job to him which i assume he has done before. but when it becomes a challenge, he takes it personally and becomes completely obsessed with the simple task of killing the kittens . The writer shows the hired mans building anger in many ways. Here is the best example ; "The red in his face deepening and threads of crimson rising in the whites of his eyes as blood mounted to his head." eventually he "craved to kill" The weather and surroundings affect the hired greatly because of the of the dry grass and heat made it an exausting walk to the river for him , also he has to create a pool in the river to be able to drown the kittens.also the 'jaggy' whins impeads him from being able to get to the kittens by becoming a shelter to one of them .