Essay Questions

What do we learn about Nichols' background from her poems?

The key thing that we learn about Nichols' background is that she is proud of it, and misses it enormously. She writes of her homeland fondly and reminisces about it all the time. Even when she is doing something else, homesickness can hit her suddenly in a wave, and at that point she needs comfort food that reminds her of the food her mother used to make to quell her yearning for Guyana.

The way in which she writes about the landscape of Guyana also shows how much she both loves and longs for it. She tells of how the landscape used to look before humans impacted it, and she paints a beautiful picture of a forest that is untouched and as nature intended. Even without her mentioning her homesickness, it is clear that she is homesick, and doesn't feel that she entirely fits into her new London home.

How does Nichols use T.S. Eliot's work to add to the personality of the cat narrating "Cat-Rap"?

The way in which Nichols weaves T.S. Eliot's work into "Cat-Rap" brings some elements of humor to the cat who is narrating. Macavity is a mysterious cat, who constantly evades authorities despite breaking laws and contravening public decency. He is so famous that he even has a nickname - the "hidden paw". The Cat in the poem clearly idolizes Macavity and even has a little celebrity crush on him, which serves to anthropomorphize him even more - after all, we can all relate, and all have that one celebrity we have a laundry list of questions for. Cat wants to meet Macavity in moggie Heaven and ask him questions, chiefly, whether he really does have a hidden paw. It is something that clearly bothers and absorbs him, giving him an additional layer to his character, and making the reader like him all the more.

He also wants to emulate Macavity in that whilst he gives the impression of being a domestic household pet cat, he is actually edgy and in possession of a wild side that nobody knows anything about. This gives him a multi-dimensional personality which in turn endears him to us all the more.