79 pages • 2 hours read
Frank Abagnale, Stan ReddingCatch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1980A 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
Social Scripts and Performance
In Catch Me if You Can, Frank Abagnale examines his criminal activities as a kind of social “script” wherein he is “an independent actor, writing, producing and directing” (128). In the book’s opening scene, he playfully remarks that, if caught, he knows he won’t “win any Oscars” (5), priming the reader to view Abagnale as an actor playing the roles of co-pilot, doctor, lawyer, and professor. He explains that in order to successfully perform these roles, he researches professional texts and makes note of industry-specific language whenever he hears it used. He even maintains a notebook (which he carries on him at all times) that serves as a kind of written script, filled with terms and significant names that help make his disguises more convincing.
Abagnale suggests that a large degree of his success as a performer comes from the appreciation of all the performances around him. He acknowledges that all of the bank clerks, hotel managers, airline employees, and other professionals he interacts with are similarly playing the roles they are expected to play within their industry. Through a combination of “personality…observation…[and] research” (129), Abagnale ensures that his social transactions with these fellow “actors” always flow as smoothly as possible, knowing that if everyone’s role is played to satisfaction, people are unlikely to look beneath the surface of a situation.
Abagnale likewise notes that in situations where professionals breach their protocol or social “script,” they are likely to turn the blame on themselves rather than the person who is not faltering in their performance. This tendency is made evident when police initially apprehend Abagnale and he notices, “the deputies were clearly uncomfortable and I had a hunch this was an affair in which they weren’t really sure of their role” (71).
Gender Privilege and the Use of Women
Frank Abagnale has a complicated understanding of women, to say the least. He explains that his father’s fixation on his mother contributed to his con man education, beginning with speech coaching, gifts, and emotional manipulation designed to woo her back. Abagnale further explains that his own obsession with women drove him to commit his first crimes, as he needed to procure more money for dates.
When Abagnale begins his deadheading copilot scam, women are highly instrumental to him as unconscious educators. Because female stewardesses are privy to a wide range of activities in the airline industry, they serve as ideal sources of insider information. Abagnale dates a number of stewardesses as a means of extracting this information in casual conversation, remarking that he loves them “for their minds” (51). More to the point, Abagnale loves them for their knowledge of airline terminology and protocol.
Abagnale defends his relationships with these women as wholly consensual and mutually affectionate; however, his discussion of these relationships typically focuses on the ways in which he benefits from them. Each female character appears only briefly and is primarily used as a vehicle for imparting new bits of useful information, such as the formatting of a college transcript, the appearance of an authentic Pan Am payroll check, the methodology of creating checks, and so on.
This pattern of women’s representation is slightly disrupted by Rosalie, a stewardess who becomes engaged to Abagnale. In a fit of conscience, Abagnale confesses his true identity to Rosalie, explaining that he is not a real copilot, but a teenage con man. Rosalie not only rejects him, but contacts the authorities. Her response raises a question of presumed female complicity: how many of the women Abagnale previously dated might’ve similarly ousted him if they were presented with the same information?
Though she also appears in the book only briefly, the sex worker Cheryl further challenges the efficacy of Abagnale’s activities. Abagnale explains to the reader that he prides himself on his “felonious code of ethics” (197) whereby he purportedly never steals from an individual, but he makes an exception for Cheryl and cons her out of $400. While there are many ways to read this interaction, Abagnale’s narration makes it clear that he both resents the idea of a woman being paid for sex and the idea of being conned by a woman in a way that resembles his own conning practices.
Identity and Self-Construction
Identity is a prevalent theme of Catch Me if You Can, given Frank Abagnale’s constant movement between different names, locations, and professions. Despite his frequent persona-hopping, Abagnale adheres to a Shakespearean sensibility regarding his identity, professing that beneath the surface, he always remains “aware that [he is] Frank Abagnale” (5). Opposed to adopting a fluid perspective or values amidst the various roles he assumes, Abagnale professes that he remains committed to an ethical code determined to retain (and in some ways, protect) his authentic identity.
There are a number of moments, however, where Abagnale either knowingly or unconsciously seems to divert from this perspective on his identity. As early as Chapter One, Abagnale’s father asserts, “As long as a man knows what he is and who he is, he’ll do all right” (19), to which Abagnale responds with internal uncertainty about what he is and who he is. He also attests to experiencing an identity crisis when he accidentally writes his name on the back of a check in Eureka, California. Furthermore, his opening reflection—“a man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself” (1)—seems to suggest that Abagnale pursues different roles that mirror the person he wants to be. Ultimately, Catch Me if You Can leaves Abagnale’s true identity (or, rather, the truth of Abagnale’s identity) up to the reader’s assessment.
