In the book, The Rabbi's Cat, Joann Sfar presents a variety of characters in which most of them struggle internally and externally to accept themselves. In regards to this I had to re-explore the cats struggle and purpose in the story.
When first introduced to the rabbi's cat we are painted an imagine of a very cynical cat who seems to be very intelligent yet kind of cruel. We are shown his intelligence by the manner in which he questions religion and even tricks the rabbi's rabbi into believing he is god. Yet this is also evidence of the manner in which he's cynical followed by his general disregard of religious barriers. At the start, the cat is annoyed by the bird and the noise it makes all day, in order to remedy this situation, he eats the bird. The cat also wants to be bar-mitzvahed just to be with the rabbis daughter. Yet this is considered a big event for Jews and is when they are considered responsible for their actions and seen as a man. So the cat wanting to do this just to be with the rabbi's daughter seems disingenuous.
At the start of the story the cats primary purpose seems just to get back with the rabbi's daughter. However the relationship between the cat and the daughter seem different, once he's able to speak, the daughter exploits his ability for information. Furthermore when she is with her husband, she does not want the cat in the room with them presumably because of privacy and the cats previous ability of speech. His speech complicated their relationship and the cat can no longer be seen as just a cute and furry companion. That's not to say that the daughter did not care about the cat but either his speech or her marriage they were not together as closely, thus bringing the cats role and or purpose into question in my mind.
At the start of the story the cats primary purpose seems just to get back with the rabbi's daughter. However the relationship between the cat and the daughter seem different, once he's able to speak, the daughter exploits his ability for information. Furthermore when she is with her husband, she does not want the cat in the room with them presumably because of privacy and the cats previous ability of speech. His speech complicated their relationship and the cat can no longer be seen as just a cute and furry companion. That's not to say that the daughter did not care about the cat but either his speech or her marriage they were not together as closely, thus bringing the cats role and or purpose into question in my mind.
After realizing the relationship between the cat and the daughter becoming slightly less significant, I thought back to chapter one and at the time what I thought was a foreshadow. When the cat is arguing with the Rabbi's Rabbi he says " I have my mistress and I will never be alone because I will die before she does." ( 18) This was after he explains that the rabbi's rabbi is going to die old and alone. Furthermore after making him look foolish he says to his master " You have no master, but you don't want to admit that, do you, because you don't want to end up old and alone and without anyone to turn to when you don't understand anything." (19) So with this information, I think throughout the rest of the story that perhaps the cats biggest fear is being alone.
Chapter three brings up some interesting points, We find the Rabbi being very contradictory in terms of his religion. In previous chapters we saw him considering accepting his cousins offer to kill a man who may take his job. However now the rabbi refuses to enter his son-in-laws parent's house because of their lack of faith and the fact that they have light switches in their house. After walking outside in the pouring rain, he refuses to enter a church because the doors are closed and he'd have to ring the doorbell so they walk away. Oddly enough the Rabi does a find an open church to rest in but the cat points out it's against their tradition to go before their creator with theirs head uncovered. Yet out of respect for the Christians the Rabbi takes off his hat even though nobody else is there and eats lots of delicious food that he's not suppose to eat.
Yet during all this the dog kind of questions the Rabbi's actions and the cat is following the Rabbi thinking how what they have been is doing is kind of stupid and contradictory. Surprisingly out loud when arguing with the dog he defends the rabbi's actions. Leading me to recall yet another quote by the cat from chapter one where he stated " You're going to do all you can to make the old man look good. And the more foolishness he talks, the more you'll call him "my master, my master" , as if to convince yourself." (19) Leading me to my original point, I believe the cat is afraid to be alone and that's why when it came to following the Rabbi in the rain or his daughter in the warm nice house, he choose the rabbi.
I also believed the cat was used as a device to connect with the other characters and not only to show their story but to give an alternative viewpoint to what was going on in the story. Overall I felt the ending of the story was kind of bland. Basically the cat gets some milk and gets to see his master come to terms with himself and become more self accepting in terms of how relaxed he is with his religion. Final thoughts, I found the graphics amazing how the actual text of the book was pretty limited. The text never had to specifically mention that the characters were upset but I had implied that without even realizing it through the pictures. My experience with graphic novels are very limited and thoroughly enjoyed this.
You make an excellent point about the issue of being alone vs. belonging to the company of others. I think this is an important point when thinking about modernity and tradition. Tradition focuses more on the group, and modernity focuses more on the individual, which can be very scary and often leave one alone.
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