Ben Bethers

IB English
Moosman Period 2
February 3, 2023

Eva Is Inside Her Cat Reflection

This story is interesting to me. I think that the class conversation we had before reading

this book and reading the first page was a very interesting preface to the rest of the story.

Although I am rather uneducated on the hardships of women opposed to the hardships of men

and how they compare, I think that I gained a greater understanding of the perspective of a

woman and the things that they have to think about in their daily decisions.

Throughout the story, I think that there is a great deal of metaphor utilized. I find that

some of the most interesting and important metaphors to be the boy, the woman, and the cat. I

think that these metaphors are metonymy, which is to say that the main character of the woman

represents women as a whole, the boy represents men as a whole, and the cat represents the

overall animalistic qualities in life. I think that there is special importance of this woman

representing all women, as Marquez emphasizes how this woman represents other women

through their “insects”, or genes, which have hatched inside their body. I think that this is

important because it points out that being attractive is a sort-of-curse which all women may have

to deal with, it is an important mechanism to notify the reader that this story reflects on all

women.

One other aspect of the story I found very interesting was the physiological prison which

this woman was trapped in in the beginning of the story. Marquez dedicated a huge portion of

this story to describing what fears the woman faced and for making the theme of conflict of man

vs self very clear. This gives me a great perspective on the internal conflicts that women face
from something that you would normally think is entirely a blessing. I find that the metaphor of

the boy being trapped inside her mind and how she specifically described her fear of the boy,

representative of men overall, and how the actions of men in relation to women may have

affected the rest of a woman’s life.

Overall, I think that this was an interesting story in that it gave me and most like other

men perspective on the fears and psychology of women when they are too attractive, causing

them physiological stress, and in the worst cases, physical danger.