"The Cat's-Eye" is structured on the journey motif, a common one in fiction. A journey may take a long time and be very complex with many sidesteps, as in the case of Cervantes's Don Quixote, or it can be brief and direct, as is the case of "The Cat's-Eye."

The journey structure usually requires that events be related in chronological order; tension is created by leaving the conclusion of the journey open-ended. One way to do this is to place the travelers in peril, suggesting that they may die before reaching their goal. Another way, as in "The Cat'sEye," is to make the ending of the journey doubtful. In "The Cat's-Eye," it is unclear how long the journey will take and where it will end.

Murphy uses the journey structure to transport his characters and his audience gradually into a fantasy world. The principal characters&mdash...