“Have no fear!” said the cat.
“I will not let you fall.
I will hold you up high
As I stand on a ball.”
“Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have to know how.”
“But that is not all.
Oh, no.
That is not all…”
That is what the cat said…
Then he fell on his head!
“You get out of this house!”
Said the fish in the pot.
Well what would YOU do
If your mother asked YOU?
clearly the cat was a figment of the bored children’s imagination – they prob’ly sat in front of the window watching rain 'til Mom got home… and the idea they had to lie to her about it was revenge for leaving them with nothing to do all day.
They even had to invent the fish’s ability to talk and be the voice of reason. Internalized mom… to rebel against in their mother’s absence. They knew what to do all along… they dreamed up the Cat in the Hat and Thing One and Thing Two as a way of obeying their mom while rebelling (through imagination) at the same time – it was all his fault, though they dreamed him up (so they wanted it without the consequences/responsibility).
The cat reminds me of the serpent in Eden… and the mom would be God. “Your mother will not mind at all if I do.” The serpent within the imagination.
The story doesn’t say they go on to lie to Mom… maybe it is just something inside me that assumes they didn’t tell her… One could ask, though… what is the harm in telling about something that didn’t really happen? 'Cause Mom would then know how ‘naughty’ (according to her) they actually wanted to be (but were too afraid to be)? Would Mom have been a total bitch about it? Or maybe she didn’t earn that insight into their psyche… leaving them alone all day… so they shut her out… reciprocation…?
Do you think I’m reading too much into a children’s story? Have you ever done that with Cat in the Hat? If so – post it here…