The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit is a 1974 children’s fiction novel by American author Paula Danziger. It follows Marcy Lewis, a girl in the ninth grade who has self-esteem issues which she tries to alleviate by opting out of school and social activities. As the book progresses, Marcy’s story reveals that her confidence problems have very real roots in her experiences with an abusive father and a nervous mother who minimizes and protects his actions. The book is a bildungsroman, showing how Marcy develops as an individual by learning to recover from her family-induced trauma, resisting their psychological abuse, and integrating into her society. The book’s title refers to one of the explanations tried by Marcy to exempt herself from gym class.

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit begins by introducing Marcy. While intelligent and kind, she is deeply insecure about being overweight, an issue that is compounded by her general anxiety about high school. At the beginning of the novel, she has an F in gym class because of her many creative excuses for not participating. Meanwhile at home, her depressed and narcissistic father, Martin, constantly puts the rest of the family down. Lily, Marcy’s mother, does not defend him outright, but suggests that Marcy ignore him and change her behavior to avoid his wrath. The dysfunctions of the Lewis family cause Marcy to have difficulty expressing her feelings to anyone.

A lot changes for Marcy once her English teacher leaves school and is replaced by Ms. Finney. An active, creative, and rigorous educator, Ms. Finney urges her students to always be conscious of their emotions and to use them as tools. Inspired by her, the students form a club named Smedley that focuses on the positive discussion of emotions. Marcy joins Smedley, and her whole high school experience transforms as she starts making friends and being vocal about her opinions. Ms. Finney is not met without opposition, however: soon, the parents begin to learn about her teaching style, and inject their own opinions. Marcy’s father is one of the most vocal dissidents of her teacher, arguing that she is too assertive. The school officials also keep her on thin ice because of her unusual methods. Soon enough, the announcement comes that Ms. Finney has been fired, allegedly because she declines to say the Pledge of Allegiance.



Knowing that Mrs. Finney’s official cause for dismissal was merely a thinly veiled attack on her teaching ideology and character, Marcy and the other members of Smedley organize and protest. Mr. Stone, the principal, gives them all suspensions. Marcy’s father, unsurprisingly, gets mad at her for finding such a ridiculous way of getting in trouble. Marcy is shocked when her mother, who is head of the PTA, defends her, in effect coming out against her father as well as the school administration. The PTA’s petition signifies a division in opinion between the members of the community over the rights of the students to protest and the ethics of Ms. Finney’s firing.

Soon enough, Ms. Finney decides to pursue legal action for her unjust firing. In the courtroom, a number of students arrive to verbally support her. The court decides in her favor, utilizing the precedent that it is unconstitutional to force someone to say the Pledge of Allegiance. In the case’s aftermath, the school board begrudgingly re-hires her, fearing a continued schism in the student body and parent community. To everyone’s surprise, Ms. Finney decides to decline the reinstatement. She goes on to become a therapist, while the school hires a more orthodox teacher in her place.

At the end of the novel, Marcy comes to accept the notion that her father will never fully understand her, and vice versa. Though she recognizes that it is impossible to change someone else, she looks back on her experience with Ms. Finney and Smedley and sees, instead of a moment to retreat from, another opportunity for self-renewal. Her mother has a change of heart, and resolves to take continued education classes at night to give her an intellectual life that can relieve her from her tense domestic one. Though Ms. Finney is gone, Marcy remains friends with the people that her teacher brought her close to. The ending of The Cat Ate My Gymsuit therefore suggests that the gifts a good teacher gives resonate beyond his or her momentary points of contact, and, conversely, that a student can use the tools that school provides to benefit in all areas of life.