Hairball analysis

I have noticed that Margaret Atwood uses a pattern of making character names shorter to demonstrate a change in character idenity.In "Hairball" after Gerald told Kat to get rid of the ovarian cyst, she told him, “Goodbye, Gerald.... She pronounces the name with mockery. It's a negation of him." ( 2)  Kat uses Ger more frequently than Gerald, but uses Gerald when annoyed or disappointed with him. By changing Gerald's name Kat helps change and shape Gerald into whatever type of men she desires. Kat's use of shorter names for Gerald helps contributes to the meaning of the “Hairball" as a whole, because Gerald's personality transforms into the same as Kat's personality, resulting in him taking away Kat's job. Eventually through Gerald's actions Kat decides to abandon her name and change herself. Kat started changing Gerald from when they first met. Originally he'd been Gerald when they first met; it was she who transformed him, first to Gerry, then to Ger. She made him get rid of those sucky pursed-mouthed ties, told him what shoes to wear. (Atwood 4)  Kat made Gerald wear and do whatever she decided by changing his identity.  She changed his identity by changing his name. Kat shortened Gerald into Ger, eventually causing him to become a different person that is cruel and takes Kat's job. The shortening of Gerald's name contributes to the meaning of “Hairball" as a whole by showing that a person's name helps make up the identity of that person and by changing a person's name one can change the person, as seen by Gerald's transformation from a nice ordinary guy into a "sexy" cruel guy that is identical to Kat.  Furthermore, Kat also transforms her own identity by changing her name. When Gerald asked Kat what her name meant she told him, "It's Kat as in KitKat. That's a chocolate bar. Melts in your mouth." (3). Kat originally changed her name from Katherine to Kathy to Kat; " During her childhood she was romanticized Katherine... By high school she'd shred the frills and emerged as a bouncy, round-faced Kathy." ( 4). As Katherine she was a nice and innocent person, but she continuously kept on making her name shorter until it became Kat. Kat's shortened name made her lose a part of herself; this shortens her up to be summed up as just like a simple KitKat that melts and gets ruined as time goes on. She went from Katherine a nice innocent person to a cruel Kat who lost some part of herself. The shortening of Kat's name contributes to the meaning of "Hairball" as a whole, because it shows that Kat loses more and more of herself as her name gets shorter, and eventually leaving her with no name and blank state.