If Cats Disappeared From The World

“Now that’s what you call a weird week.

Oh and by the way—I’m going to die soon.”

This observation conveys the narrator’s characteristic tone of ironic humor. Describing his dramatic and traumatic week as “weird” is a comedic understatement, reinforced by his blasé presentation of his upcoming death as an afterthought.

“I didn’t even have ten things I wanted to do before I die.

In a movie I saw once the heroine is about to die so makes a list of ten things she wants to do before she goes.

What a load of crap.

OK. So maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. But really, what even goes on a list like that? A load of rubbish probably.”

The postman uses informal, deprecating language to dismiss the concept of creating a bucket list, as well as his own failed efforts. His narrative style is characterized by colloquial language, constant self-corrections, and hypophora—a rhetorical question immediately answered by the asker—which contribute to the intimate feel of the novel.

“I just kept quiet and held the cat in my arms. He felt warm and soft—a smooth, fluffy ball in my arms. Before, I would hold him and pet him without thinking about it much, but now, for the first time, it occurred to me that this is what life was all about.”

The detailed tactile description of the feel of the cat’s fur features strong sensory imagery in the adjectives “warm,” “soft,” “smooth,” and “fluffy.” This highlights the significance and meaning of this transient moment of peace and illustrates the depth of the postman’s love for his cat.

“‘Exactly. Now isn’t that incredible? He did it all in just seven days. God is just awesome! You know, I have so much respect for him.’

Somehow when it came to what all this should inspire, respect didn’t seem to cut it…but in any case, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

The Devil uses the persuasive techniques of advertisement, relying on seeming hyperbole (God “did it all in just seven days”), rhetorical questions (“isn’t that incredible?”), and short, punchy sentences to add impact and authority to his speech. The use of an exclamation mark shows his forceful and enthusiastic personality, which contrasts with the more hesitant and contemplative postman, who instead uses the hesitating punctuation mark of ellipsis.

“The first man’s name was Adam. Then God thought he might be lonely since he was the only human around, so he created a woman from Adam’s rib. But then the two of them were just hanging out there without much to do so I decided—to liven things up for them—to suggest to God that I get them to eat the apple.”

The Devil’s interactions with Adam and Eve foreshadow and parallel his upcoming deals with the postman. The Devil retells the story of the Bible’s Book of Genesis in informal, contemporary language that reflects the fact that he was there for the events. Humor comes from the juxtaposition of key aspects of Christian theology with Aloha’s often goofy presentation.

“It had come out of nowhere, and was such a ridiculous offer. He sounded just like the shopping channel on cable TV, desperate to sell you something. How can you extend your life by making such a simple swap?”

This simile compares the Devil to a television salesperson, highlighting the forcefulness of his arguments as well as the jarring or artificial nature of his excessively friendly and enthusiastic attitude. The rhetorical question emphasizes the postman’s own shock and disbelief over the proposition.

“I had to go and see her—the person I had just phoned. Her.”

The repetition of the pronoun “her” and its isolation in a single-word sentence at the end of the paragraph show how important the postman’s ex-girlfriend still is to him, as well as his strong feeling about their upcoming meeting. The fact that she remains nameless through the narrative creates a further link between her and the similarly unnamed postman.

“‘In order to gain something you have to lose something.’

Mom said it was just obvious. People are always trying to get something for nothing. But that’s just theft. If you’ve gained something it means that someone, somewhere, has lost something. Even happiness is built on someone else’s misfortune. Mom often told me this, she considered it one of the laws of the universe.”

The postman’s mother had a profound influence on him, and he held her in very high esteem, shown by how well he remembers her sayings and wisdom years after her death. The mother’s belief that acquisition and debit are linked is repeated multiple times through the course of the novel, and are key to the theme Juxtaposing Gain and Loss.

“The whole thing seemed kind of surreal, even to me, so why should I be surprised if other people don’t seem shocked, disappointed, or sad.

I wonder why people always expect things from others that they themselves can’t or won’t do. Did I want her to be shocked, or sad?”

The postman often uses adjective triples when listing potential emotional reactions: For example, here he images other people as “shocked, disappointed, or sad.” The effect is paradoxical: On the one hand, the list heightens the emotional language, emphasizing the depth of feeling; on the other hand, the postman’s inability to correctly identify a specific emotion and his reliance instead on several attempts at getting it right point to his closed-off, repressed nature.

“But one small morsel of pain remained. Just one little regret. And that is the feeling that if we had just had our phones with us on that flight back to Japan, maybe, just maybe we could have talked about our feelings and wouldn’t have had to break up. Monopoly was over, but maybe we could have tried a new game.”

The past tense and conditional mood of the phrases “if we had just had” and “maybe we could have talked” show the postman’s regret over the past, and his preoccupation with what might have been. Although the postman is aware of his inability to articulate his grief and bond with his girlfriend in the moment, he can only ruminate over the alternative possibilities of the past, rather than taking steps toward restitution and reconciliation in the present.

“In my dream the man says ‘Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.’ The little tramp wears a silk hat and an oversized suit, twirling his walking stick as he approaches. I’ve always been moved by these words. When I first heard them and even more so now. I want to tell him how important they are to me but I can’t get the words out.”

The postman dreams of a scene from Charlie Chaplin’s movie Limelight; the quotation that comes to him in this dream reflects the postman’s dawning understanding that happiness and sadness can be chosen by altering one’s perspective. This shows the significant impact that movies have had on the postman’s life and beliefs; he is recognizing here that his impending death is a tragedy when viewed from the narrow confines of his isolation, but could also be the impetus for more positive emotions if he broadens his horizon to include other people.

“Conclusion 1:

NO MUSIC, YES LIFE. […]

Conclusion 2:

Basically all human beings really need to survive is food, water, and shelter.”

The postman’s analytical thought process is reflected in the format of this passage. He concisely summarizes his conclusions, labeling them with headings in an organized list, illustrating clearly how he comes to his decision.

“‘Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish.’

He was right, even jellyfish are here for a reason—they have meaning. And if that’s the case, then movies and music, coffee and pretty much everything else must have some kind of meaning too.”

This passage illustrates the postman’s growing understanding of the importance of everyday objects and therefore of the consequences of making them disappear. Not only does this show his character development, but it also contributes to the theme of Valuing Objects, Relationships, and the Everyday.

“I once heard that the origin of the Japanese word for cat, ‘neko’, is actually ‘sleeping child’ (same sound, different choice of kanji characters), but I think that’s a load of rubbish. Cabbage never sleeps late—he always wakes up early and starts harassing me.”

The postman’s humorous take on Japanese folk etymology (commonly held but not necessarily accurate beliefs about the origin of words) of the word for cat shows his love for and exasperation with Cabbage’s typical cat-like behavior, making their relationship relatable and charming to the reader.

“So Mom would watch hours of TV with Cabbage curled up on her lap. Cabbage must have learned human language from the shows they watched.

So Cabbage’s Japanese was an odd mixture of my mother’s speech and period TV dramas. It was kind of terrible…and yet kind of cute too. So I decided I wouldn’t try and correct it.”

Cabbage’s unconventional speech patterns are the result of watching TV on the postman mother’s lap as a kitten. This comical subversion of expectations reinforces Cabbage’s role as a link between the postman and his mother, since his mother’s influence lives on in Cabbage’s manner of speaking.

“Cabbage had the look of someone who was wondering what the hell I was talking about. He really must have forgotten about her. It suddenly hit me how sad this was. Cabbage’s complete innocence just made me feel worse. I guess somewhere deep down I always believed those stories about animals that never forget their master, like in the story of Hachiko, who for years waited at the station for his master to come home, without realizing his master had died.”

In a famous Japanese story, Hachiko is an Akita that spent the last nine years of his life waiting to meet his deceased master at Shibuya station following the man’s death in 1925. The dog is a significant cultural figure representing fidelity and loyalty, immortalized in statues and memorials, and celebrated annually at Shibuya station. Cabbage’s inability to live up to this idealized standard of love and devotion following his own owner’s death illustrates the complexity of real-life grief, love, and loss.

“This is you, Cabbage. This is where you always sat. And this is the ball of yarn you liked so much. You’d play here for hours on end. And here’s the worn-out old tin bucket where you used to curl up and go to sleep. I remember you peering out at Mom.”

The postman describes and comments on family photos of Cabbage in a long monologue directly addressing the cat in the second person—one of the passages that stretches the conceit that the novel is a letter the postman is writing. Here, the simple language, short sentences, and declarative statements give the impression of a parent talking to a child. The postman takes on a paternal cast here, illustrating his bond with the cat and enacting a role he will never actually be able to fulfill because of his upcoming death.

“His small body shook and he let out a painful meow. He wanted me to save him, but I could do nothing but watch him. Time and again Lettuce tried to stand on his own, but instantly collapsed.

‘I guess this is it,’ I whispered.

‘I guess so…’

There was a note of sad acceptance in Mom’s quiet reply.”

The vivid description of Lettuce’s suffering and the postman’s helplessness create pathos in this scene. The use of the words “whispered” and “quiet” to describe the dialogue adds to the somber, grieving atmosphere and the impact of the cat’s death.

“So instead of a list of ten things I want to do before I die, this is what I wrote.

Things that are beautiful and good about you.”

The postman’s mother, who loved her son unreservedly and consistently, prioritized her family over herself even on her deathbed. Even her bucket list ends up being about her wishes for the postman’s future. While her list’s failure echoes his own unsuccessful attempt at writing a bucket list at the beginning of the novel, the two are markedly different in intent: The postman fails because his list is glib and has little to do with his own preferences and regrets, while hers is simply a reflection of her selflessness. The list the mother does arrive at—“things that are beautiful and good about you”—reverses his ex-girlfriend’s earlier recitation of his flaws.

“For me, cats are no different from the sun and the ocean and the air we breathe. So I have decided to stop making things disappear from the world. I have decided to accept the life that has been given to me exactly as it is, even though it seemed like it would be on the rather short side. So that means that I’m going to die soon.”

The postman’s resolution is shown through anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of successive sentences—in this case, “I have decided.” He uses hyperbole to show the importance of cats, claiming that cats equal in importance such necessary, massive phenomena as the sun, the ocean, and the air. The combination of these rhetorical devices makes this passage sound like a biblical pronouncement, which is fitting for the dramatic perspective shift it reveals.

“Somewhere deep inside I always knew that you cared about Mom’s needs. And you even felt something for Lettuce, our first cat, even though you didn’t show it the same way everyone else did. I realize now that I was wrong about you. You always said the right thing, and you were honest. I wonder if there was something about that that made me reject you.”

Addressing his father directly in the second person as “you,” the postman reveals his growing understanding of his father’s inability to express the emotions that he nevertheless felt deeply. This illustrates the character development that the postman has undergone over the course of the novel, and the earnestness of his attempt to reach out.

“I place a clean white sheet of paper on the desk and begin to write. At the top of the page I write—

Dear Father…”

The narration switches temporarily from the past tense used in the majority of the novel to the present tense. This creates a sense of immediacy and connection between the reader and the narrator, and brings the reader back to the novel’s beginning, as the postman starts the letter that is the novel itself.

“The figure in the mirror looked a lot like my father. My face, posture, and gestures had all come to look just like the father I’d hated for so long.”

As the postman accepts and forgives his father, he is able to acknowledge the extent of his former antipathy as well as the similarities between the two of them, such as their physical appearance and bearing.