The Catbird Seat

The protagonist of the story is Mr. Martin, who has worked at his company for more than twenty years. He is faced with Mrs. Ulgine Barrows, his antagonist, when she is brought into the office to become his boss' special adviser. Right from the beginning Mrs. Barrows had irritated Mr. Martin for two years, stammering down the hallways and screaming ridiculous questions at him, such as, "Are you sitting in the catbird seat?" Later this phrase was explained to Mr. Martin by his assistant who told him it meant to be sitting pretty, such as a hitter with no errors. Mr. Martin was convinced Mrs. Barrows was ruining the dynamic of the company and would most likely soon cause it to crumble to the ground. He decided to take action to get rid of Ms. Barrows. One night he showed up at Mrs. Barrows house around 9:30. The way James Thurber describes Mr. Martin's intentions, readers are led to think he will murder Mrs. Barrows. Mr. Martin arrives at the house and begins to look for an object he could use as a weapon while Mrs. Barrows is in the kitchen. Unable to find a weapon, party because of his conscience stopping him, he begins talking with Mrs. Barrows and the climax begins. Cleverly, he decides to have a cigarette and a drink because that is highly unlike him, or so his boss thinks. Mr. Martin begins insulting his boss and talks of killing him. Mrs. Barrows is shocked by this and decides to tell Mr. Fitweiler about what happened last night. He doesn't believe her because he thinks it is so out of Mr. Martin's character to smoke and drink and talk badly about his boss since he has been so loyal for over 20 years. Mr. Fitweiler decides that Mrs. Barrows is suffering from a mental breakdown and having hallucinations; which causes him to fire her. Mr. Martin does indeed appear to be "sitting in the catbird seat" now with Mrs. Barrow's out of the picture and without letting anyone know of what really happened that night.
Mr. Martin was a clever man. Not only did he get rid of his problem, Mrs. Barrows, he did it in a way that didn't weigh to heavily on his conscious. If he would've murdered her, he probably would have suffered because of his strong conscious. It's ironic that the phrase "sitting in the catbird seat" is used to describe Mr. Martin's position at the end of the story. Mrs. Barrow's annoying phrase somewhat serves as a foreshadowing device of what will happen to Mr. Martin later on in the story. This was a very interesting story to read.