Кот в шлеме

Apparently, "The Cat in the Hat" does not translate well from English to Russian, because when I translated it back, it turned out as "Tomcat in the Helmet." Well. Whatever.

ERIN I CAN'T DO THIS NOW MY FEET HURT.

Okay.

I'm going to do a character analysis essay of the Fish.

The Fish is the grown-up one. I think it's funny that they made him have a British voice in the movie, because that's really what I would've pictured him having. He's quite stuck up. He's the superego to the Cat's id. In fact, he's sort of directly the opposite of the Cat. The Cat comes barreling into the house and runs around like a crazy man and is physically large and mobile, while the Fish is pretty physically calm and doesn't do much (probably because he's a fish...) The Cat seems to DO things, while the Fish SAYS things. So my argument here is that the Fish is the authority figure, the one who tries to calm everyone down. That's his job in the story. Breaking up the fun.

The Fish says "No!" a lot. That seems to be his job. From that, you can see that he has some amount of control, or would like to have some. Also, he doesn't like chaos, he doesn't like breaking the rules, he doesn't like strange cats invading his house. He can't do much on his own, since he's a fish, but he wants to be in charge. From what he's saying no to, you can also figure that he's more mature than the rest of them. He figures out that the Cat shouldn't be in the house almost as soon as the Cat walks in the door, while the narrator and Sally apparently have trouble realizing that.

For some reason it seems like the Fish doesn't have much of a will of his own, while the Cat has a lot of personality. I think that's because the Fish kind of represents authority figures, the one who comes to break up your party or tell you to quiet down. The wakwakwak voice in the Charlie Brown movies. He's the police or the hall monitor or the park rangers. They have authority, but only because someone else gives it to them, so it isn't their will acting, it's the will of the person who gave them the authority to arrest you or suspend you or throw you out. The Fish is the "babysitter." He was told to take care of the kids (authority) by a high power (Mom.) Okay, probably not really, but it ends up seeming that way. On the other hand, the Cat clearly is just doing what he wants to because he wants to do it. Maybe he honestly does want to help out the kids by entertaining them, but nobody HIRED the Cat to do it.

The Fish even seems physically more mature and calmer than the Cat. While the Cat is obviously ridiculous (a giant cat wearing a red and white striped hat and bouncing on a ball...right.) the Fish is just...a fish. Sitting in a bowl of water. Very calm. Much more realistic, despite the fact that he's talking. Once again, the Fish is the adult. Which sounds really weird. I think I need to stop now. That's 500 words, right?