Literary Analysis of Cat in The Rain by Ernest Hemingway

The literature in the 19th century was divided by modernist and traditionalist. These two sides divided society into sectors with different ideas. These different viewpoints created conflict in the United States in the 1920s. Modernist influenced literature in the way that, they spoke about the social issue with their own personal viewpoints. In the story “Cat in the Rain”, Hemingway uses symbolism and personal experiences to respond to the social concerning women’s rights movement act.

Ernest Hemingway who was recognized with a Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1952 and a Nobel Prize in the same year, has become one of the most famous American authors of all time. This was due to his experiences, shaping him up to develop a new writing style which became an inspiration to many writes of the past and modern day. Hemingway’s early life, a far apart from being an author. He was drafted into going to the First World War, however, he wouldn’t go in as a soldier, but as a driver. Tragedy, Hemingway was severely injured in his legs and had to have immediate surgery, which at that time wasn’t very effective. Yet, the surgery actually resulted perfectly. While he was in the hospital, he used to tell of the stories that he had lived through his time in the war. This was how the great Hemingway got into storytelling. His usual style is reflected in personal storytelling like it was in the hospital. Hemingway’s work usually wrote about problems that society faced, he usually proved his masculine and sexist attitudes through characters in the stories that he wrote. He used imagery as a technique that he used to address death. The usage of death was high in his stories due to his background of being a soldier of the First World War. Hemingway’s style was fundamentally shaped in reaction to his experience of world war one. After world war one, he and other modernists lost faith in the central institutions of western civilization and started using their original and profound personal experiences to convey a much bigger message in their tale.

The use of a unique writing style used in this story makes an impactful remark in the way that this story is processed by the reader. Therefore, Hemingway helps the reader to perceive the meaning and purpose of the cat through his use of setting, writing style and character. Hemingway sets the setting to be as unpleasant and grey as possible. He does this to convey the setting and state of 1925. This grey day of age was situated around 7 years after WW. During these times many arguments such as the prohibition of alcohol, the “KKK”, immigration, communism and much more were created. The creation of such outrageous ideas divided the population into usually two or more sides which would be in conflict and created social chaos. Hemingway uses rain as a symbol of paralysis. In the story, the use of “it was raining. The rain dripped from the palm leaves”, give the reader the idea that the hotel must not be active on a rainy day. The fact that “[there] were only two Americans stopping at the hotel” gave the story an eerie feel, as well as being in an unknown country with few resources to their demand. Ernest also uses his signature writing style in this story. He uses his own point of view, this is a typical writing style that Ernest and other authors used due to their complaints with the literature at that time. These authors ended up creating a new technique that leads the author to state his point of view and use different personal experiences in their writing. The personal ideas that Hemingway uses in the “Cat in the Rain” are extremely sexist. Hemingway clearly exhibits his sexist thoughts thought out the story as in the character of George. This is clearly seen when George, compliments her wife saying how she “[looks] pretty darn nice”, contrasting his next thought by telling her wife to “shut up and get something to read”. Hemingway is globally known for his sexism attributes. He is also known to use little descriptions in his stories but depends confidently on the dialogue. Hemingway uses symbolism to capture the details of the portrayal of sexism. In the story the reader sees how the wife spots a cat stuck in the grey rain across their empty hotel, this causes the wife to get sentimental and start connecting with the poor helpless cat. She can connect to the poor cat because the piteous state of the cat is a perfect reflection of what the wife’s feelings of loneliness and vulnerability are. The desire that the wife feels for the cat also personifies her lack and desire for comfort and loving contact. Succeeding this event, the wife returns upstairs and starts telling George that she wants a cat to “comfort her and to sit on her lap”. This vision and ideal state are what women were trying to achieve during these times, to get equal treatment and for them to be dependent. The cat describes the spark that starts the fire, this is the connection that women felt, which motivated them to fight on what was right.

To conclude, the modernist Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism and personal experience to address social issues. This new style of writing, helps the author to express his thoughts with an artistic touch. In the case of Hemingway, he usually takes on a character to show his thoughts and to communicate his ideas within the story. Today we can see this text as a reference for the drastic change that our society has taken through the conflict that has come upon different ideas. 

Works Cited

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2. Fetterley, J. (1978). The resisting reader: A feminist approach to American fiction. Indiana University Press.
3. Hemingway, E. (1925). "Cat in the Rain." In Hemingway, E. (Ed.), In Our Time. Boni & Liveright.
4. Hemingway, E. (1952). The Old Man and the Sea. Scribner.
5. Jones, L. (1991). Hemingway and women: Female critics and the female voice. University Press of Mississippi.
6. Leff, L. (2017). The Modernist Response to Chinese Art: Pound, Moore, Stevens. University of Virginia Press.
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