Response to Meow

This story is about Cyril, a mentally handicapped kid whose only friends are his father, a store owner and a cat. Cyril starts off the story by reading a private journal of one of his neighbors. He gets caught and kicked out of his neighbor’s property. After getting in trouble he goes to Captain D’s for some food. He is friends with the owner, Earl. Cyril and Earl go out back to eat some fish and find Jimmy-cat, a cat Cyril befriended on the streets. The boy finishes his meal and sets of to find the cat so he can feed it. He finally finds the cat back by the Dumpster but is confused by what he sees. It turns out that Jimmy-cat is a girl and had kittens and Cyril and Earl stand around the can and laugh with joy and that’s how it ends.

                I really enjoyed the point of view and voice of this story. Cyril was an interesting character to follow especially being inside his head as much as you are while reading “meow”. Using a mentally handicapped main character was an interesting choice for the story but I think it worked well.

                The first person perspective for this story works really well because the characters mind is so interesting in its limited capacity. The voice seemed believable as well.

                The main character was well developed but he is the only character I have a good feel for. The dad especially should be improved upon. We know nothing about the father except that he no longer has a wife for some reason. Also the owner of the Captain D’s Earl, we know very little about him as well.

                The development of the story was very solid. It starts with an interesting scene with good tension and excitement then it transitions to an exposition to explain the main character. The story has a good balance.

                The dialogue is well done on this story. It is not over used but it is also well placed to add tension for the characters like in the beginning with the girl and at the end with the discovery of the kittens.

                The story opens with excitement and ends with excitements and joy which is appropriate given the nature of the story.