The Symbolism in E. Hemingway’s Novel Cat in The Rain
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 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”(Hemingway 408), 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 a 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”(Hemingway 409), 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 Geroge 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.
