46 pages • 1 hour read
The Catbird Seat
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Routine and Efficiency as Values
Mr. Martin is an avatar of efficiency. His department runs smoothly, and he finds any breach of etiquette—etiquette as he defines it—intolerable. His reliability makes him an ideal employee but a boring companion. Mr. Martin’s commitment to running an efficient office is the only thing in his life that the reader knows he cares about. With the rise of factories, efficiency was in ever-greater demand at the turn of the century. Mr. Martin, although he works in an office and not in a factory, represents the ideal worker. He is unimaginative—aside from his fanciful murder plot—abstemious, and wholly devoted to efficiency. His need for routine is not merely a quirk; it makes him a deadly enemy when Mrs. Barrows threatens his workplace routine.
Mr. Martin’s commitment to routine makes him rigid and uncompromising. Mr. Martin is not the boss of the company, but he acts as if he has a disproportionate stake in it, and the reader may wonder why efficiency matters so much to him. The office appears to be the only place where Mr. Martin has purpose. He never reflects on enjoying anything but the occasional glass of Plus, gain access to 8,650+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
Unlock all 46 pages of this Study Guide
Related Titles
By James Thurber
