devastating, it pales in comparison to the news that her replacement is none other than Ger him self. Kat realizes that her creation, Ger, has become Frankenstein’s Monster. She muses, “Naturally. Betrayal. The monster has turned on its own mad scientist” (pp. 21). Back in her apartment Kat realizes that all along it has been Ger and life with that she has been longing after. She understands that the Ger she had created killed the Gerald that she was initially attracted to. Only as Kat’s conflict with Ger comes to the apex does she realize the conflict within herself.As Kat stares at hairball she understands that her life’s struggles have been in vain. Kat comes face to face with the realization that, while Ramboing her way through life, she has missed her opportunity for happiness. Kat has squandered away her life with empty relationships and fruitless jobs. Kat wants the house with the white picket fence, the 2.5 children and the dog but understands none of those are in the foreseeable future. What Kat does see is Hairball, the “warped child” of her relationship with Ger. The tumor is not only symbolic of Kat’s relationship with Ger but also of her relationship with herself. The physical abuse her body has taken because of Kat’s lifestyle, including the abortions, has now become manifest in Hairball. Kat’s lack of foresight has caused the destruction of her mental and physical well being. Eventually, Hairball becomes the vehicle for the ultimate bizarre act reflecting Kat's personality disintegration. She has gone from Katherine, to Kath, to Kat to being “temporarily without a name.”The journey that Kat takes through the story, from a person defined by others to a person without definition, is somewhat of a birth in reverse. In the story the character of Kat is defined by the conflicts she faces and her inability to adequately deal with them. T...
