Chapter 4 Summary: Thursday – A World Without Clocks

Spoiler Warning: This page contains detailed plot points and analysis for Chapter 4 of If Cats Disappeared from the World. If you haven’t read this chapter yet, proceed with caution.

Summary

The narrator wakes to the improbable sound of his cat Cabbage speaking with the refined diction of an aristocrat. Aloha appears in yet another garish Hawaiian shirt and explains that, after erasing phones and movies, he granted the cat the power of speech as a “little something extra” to keep the narrator entertained. The day’s main disappearance is clocks. All timepieces have vanished: wristwatches, alarm clocks, on‑screen TV timers—nothing remains to mark the hours. Aloha philosophises that time is merely a set of arbitrary rules humans invented to organise the world, and now that system is gone.

Cabbage insists on a walk, and his chatter reveals he acquired his gentlemanly speech from the period dramas the narrator’s mother used to watch. As they stroll through the shopping district—where Cabbage is a local celebrity who earns the narrator a “cat discount”—the cat casually admits he has no memory of Mom. Shocked, the narrator returns home and retrieves dusty photo albums. He shares stories of Mom, of the cat Lettuce, and finally of a seaside hot‑spring trip the family took a week before she died. Cabbage stares at the photos, and though he cannot recall any concrete details, he says he remembers simply that he was happy. The narrator suddenly understands that his mother’s dying wish wasn’t for herself—it was to bring him and his father together. Crying, he realises the depth of her love. The talking spell then fades, and Cabbage reverts to an ordinary meow. Aloha reappears and, grinning maliciously, announces the next thing that must disappear: cats.

Key Events

The narrator wakes to Cabbage speaking in an upper‑class manner; Aloha reveals this is his doing.
Aloha confirms clocks have been erased from the world, then lectures on time as a human fabrication.
Cabbage insists they go for a walk, revealing that his refined vocabulary comes from Mom’s period dramas.
Cabbage’s popularity in the shopping district nets the narrator discounted groceries.
Cabbage discloses he has no recollection of the narrator’s mother.
The narrator shows Cabbage old photo albums, recounting stories of Mom and the last family trip to a hot spring.
Cabbage remembers only the feeling of happiness, prompting the narrator to realise Mom’s trip was intended to reconcile him with his father.
The narrator breaks down in tears; Cabbage comforts him.
The magic that enabled Cabbage to speak wears off, and the cat returns to normal meowing.
Aloha declares that cats will be the next thing the narrator must make disappear.

Character Development

The Narrator
In the clockless world, he grapples with the realisation that time is a construct that both imprisons and comforts. His walk with Cabbage forces him to confront long‑suppressed grief about his mother’s death and his estranged relationship with his father. The photo albums unearth a flood of guilt and gratitude, culminating in his first genuine emotional release since learning of his terminal illness.

Cabbage
Cabbage’s temporary ability to speak exposes the disconnect between human and animal perceptions. His blunt inability to remember Mom—despite having been her cherished companion—challenges the narrator’s sentimental assumptions, yet the retained feeling of happiness underscores the idea that emotional truth can outlast factual memory.

Aloha
The devil remains a teasing, capricious figure. His “gift” of a talking cat is both a whimsical bonus and a tool that propels the narrator into painful introspection. His final announcement—eliminating cats—crystallises the chapter’s mounting sense of dread.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Time as a Human Construct: Aloha’s speech and the missing clocks highlight how people impose artificial order on natural rhythms, sacrificing freedom for security.
Memory and Forgetting: Cabbage’s absent memory of Mom contrasts with the tangible evidence in the photo albums, questioning what remains after death and whether emotional impressions are more lasting than specific recollections.
Love and Sacrifice: The hot‑spring trip is recast as an act of maternal selflessness; Mom’s final energy was spent trying to mend the family bond.
Cats and Freedom from Time: Cabbage moves through the world governed only by hunger, sleep, and affection—an existence free from the tyranny of minutes and hours.
Heartbeats and Mortality: The narrator’s reflection on the two‑billion‑beat lifetime common to all mammals ties his individual mortality to a larger, biological rhythm that persists even when clocks are gone.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 4 deepens the novel’s emotional stakes. The disappearance of clocks strips away the illusion that every moment is measurable and interchangeable, forcing the narrator to value what remains. It resurrects the painful but redemptive memory of his mother’s last act of love and sets the stage for the ultimate sacrifice: the erasure of the one living being who has stayed by his side. By juxtaposing the loss of human‑made order with the imminent loss of an irreplaceable companion, the chapter sharpens the central question of what, if anything, is worth trading for a few more days of life.

Study Questions and Answers

How does the disappearance of clocks change the narrator’s understanding of time?
Without clocks, the narrator initially feels a lightness and freedom, but he soon realises that the structured time he resented also provided a sense of security. He begins to see time not as a neutral measuring tool but as a human invention that both restricts and stabilises life.
Why does Cabbage not remember the narrator’s mother, and what does this reveal about memory?
Cabbage’s complete forgetfulness suggests that animal memory may not preserve personal histories the way human memory does. Yet his retained sense of having been happy indicates that emotional imprints can survive even when facts vanish, complicating the narrator’s belief that love must be tied to specific shared experiences.
What is the significance of the hot‑spring trip photograph?
The photograph captures a moment when the dying mother orchestrated one last family outing. To the narrator, it becomes proof that her wish was never about seeing the ocean; it was about giving him and his father a reason to stand together again. The image thus symbolises selfless love and the unspoken hope for reconciliation.

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