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Free indirect discourse, sometimes called free indirect style or close third-person point of view, is a narrative technique that allows authors to develop a particular narrative perspective. “Cat Person” is narrated from a third-person limited point of view. The narrative voice is influenced heavily by Margot’s perspective. Margot’s thoughts serve as the story’s interpretive filter. Even when the story relates Robert’s words and actions, readers get Margot’s take on what he says and does, so readers’ view of him is mediated through Margot’s perspective. Unlike first-person point of view, in which Margot would tell the story entirely from her perspective using such pronouns as I and me, free indirect discourse allows the author to report, as if observing, Robert’s words and actions. Yet this reporting is rarely free of Margot’s interpretation. Only once do readers hear Robert’s words unmediated by Margot’s interpretation—at the end of the story, in the increasingly angry texts to which Margot does not respond. Otherwise, Margot’s perceptions of her relationship with Robert create a dominant third-person limited perspective that is far from unbiased.
For example, when Margot meets Robert, she says she could have “drummed up an imaginary crush on him” if he were a student, but she also notes that he slumps, “as though he were protecting something.” The use of free indirect discourse makes it hard to know whether the narrator presents Robert as having something to protect or whether this is Margot’s impression only. When Margot tries to understand Robert based on what she observes, her assumptions color the story’s narrative voice. One effect of this technique is to make Margot a sympathetic character to readers who find her relatable. But readers who do not relate easily to her, or who relate more to Robert, may find the narratorial voice limiting.
