Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain”: Symbolism.

AUTORA: Vanesa Duque León

“A Cat in the Rain” is a non-fiction story that belongs to Ernest

Hemingway’s collection.

In a 1958 interview, Hemingway expressed his literary
concern in a way that shows how his art both depends
on and radically departs from conventional “realism”:
“From things that have happened and from things as
they exist and from all the things that you know and all
those that you cannot know, you make something
through your invention that is not a representation but a
whole new thing truer than any thing true and alive.
(The Harper American Literature, 1156)

In “A Cat in the Rain,” Hemingway demonstrates his ability to

portray real women with problems and to respond to their unhappiness with

real sympathy. “A Cat in the Rain” is, on the surface, a simple tale of an

American couple in Italy.

Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain”

However, the reader soon realizes that this uncomplicated story

illuminates much deeper meanings. This seemingly mundane plot becomes

symbolic and purposeful under the reader’s gaze.

There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel.
They did not know any of the people they passed on
the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their
room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also
faced the public garden and war monument. There
were big palms and green benches in the public garden.
In the good weather there was always an artist with his
easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the
bright colors of the hotel facing the sea. Italians came
from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It
was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was
raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water
stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a
long line in the rain. The motor cars were gone from
the square by the war monument. Across the square in
the doorway of the cafe a waiter stood looking out at
the empty square.

With the introduction of this single paragraph, Hemingway has set

out the background, that is, the setting of this story. It is a long description

of the environment in good weather, which means spring or summer; then a

description of the momentary situation in the rain. The photographic

description of the place is absorbing and, in it, the weather plays an

important role. Weather descriptions usually constitute substantial part in

Hemingway’s writing and introduce the readers into the atmosphere of the

story. This description creates an atmosphere that is sad, cold and

unfriendly. To create this atmosphere, the author uses words such as

“empty” or “the motorcars were gone”. Later on, we will see this as a kind

of advanced mention to the state of the couple’s relationship. Another

symbolic hint in this introduction is the “war monument”, which is

mentioned three times, probably, to tell us that a conflict is to be expected.

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Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain”

The American wife stood at the window looking out.
Outside right under their window a cat was crouched
under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was
trying to make herself so compact that she would not
be dripped on.
"I'm going down and get that kitty," the American
wife said.
"I'll do it," her husband offered from the bed.
"No, I'll get it. The poor kitty is out trying to keep
dry under the table."
The husband went on reading, lying propped up
with the two pillows at the foot of the bed.
"Don't get wet," he said.

As we see, in order to introduce the main characters and set up the

situation, Hemingway uses short sentences, dialogues and descriptions of

movements and gestures, which, at first sight, seem to be pointless but are

highly relevant to the plot. The language used is very simple.

In this part of the story the main characters are presented: “The

American wife” and “the husband”. Each of them seem to be isolated from

each other. We see the different paradigms: she is looking out of the

window and he is reading all the time: “The husband went on reading,

lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed.” “George was

on the bed reading.” “George was reading again.” “He was reading again.”

It has been highlighted by those repetitions that George is reading. We see

the opposition in the things they are doing. The American wife is looking

out the window and sees a cat in the rain, which she wants to protect from

the raindrops. When she goes out of the hotel, kept by an old Italian who

seems to do everything to please her, and wants to get the cat, it is gone.

After returning to the hotel, she starts a conversation with her husband,

George, who keeps on reading. He seems to be annoyed and not interested

at all in what she is saying: “Oh, shut up and get something to read, George

said. He was reading again.”

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Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain”

The husband’s crass words in conjunction with his inattentive

attitude, characterized him as a stereotypical male who sees little benefit in

taking his wife seriously. He ignores her needs. The way the husband is and

the way he is acting shows the marriage coming apart. The story reflects

certain strains in marriage, the most important of which is communication:

“George was not listening. He was reading his book.” He is alienated while

his marriage is disintegrating.

The story is, in fact, full of symbolism. As Hemingway himself

stated in his Nobel Prize speech acceptance:

Things may not be immediately discernible in what a
man writes, and this is sometimes he is fortunate; but
eventually they are quiet clear and by these and the
degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or
be forgotten.

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Or, in other words, “I always try to write on the principle of the

iceberg, “ he told an interviewer. “There is seven-eights of it under water

for every part that shows.” (The Norton Anthology of American Literature,

1633)

We have already analysed the weather, but the water and the cat are

two other important symbols that are interrelated. We see the water from

the very beginning: “It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees.

Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the

rain.” The water is a symbol of fertility. It is thanks to water that the land

can become fruitful; hence the prevalence throughout the story of images of

water. There is water that is stagnant, like those little pools, and water in

movement, like that in the sea. However, she does not become wet, which

means that nothing can grow from her sterile womb. The water never

touches her: “Do not get wet”. Thus, Hemingway is portraying an attitude

towards marriage: the antipaternity attitude of George, a man who in his

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www.geocitie.com/Athens/Aegean/1724/catinthe/htm.

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Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain”

detached existence or in dedication to imaginative activities (“He was

reading his book”), tries to take his wife out of time by arresting her

fecundity.

On the other hand, the cat can be seen as symbolising a baby. The

woman wants to protect that little cat, which stands for innocence and

vulnerability, like a baby. She does not know why she wants that cat so

much (“I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty.”),

but we know it

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: she feels the need for something to care for, to be

responsible for, that makes her grow up. George, however, does not need

that, he does not want to have children, he already is grown up, which is

shown by his serious behaviour and that he treats his wife like a child. In

the text, she is even referred to as “”The American girl” or, simply, “the

girl”. Now, we understand why they are having problems with their

marriage- because they are on different levels. They cannot find a mutual

base for their relationship and that makes her bored

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by him and him

annoyed by her. Notwithstanding, George does not understand the problem

of his wife and therefore of their relationship, because when she talks about

letting her hair grow (to make her become more feminine), he just tells her,

with disinterest, that he likes the way it is. But her wish for longer hair is

only the beginning. She tells him that she wants her own silver to eat with

and some candles and a cat, and new clothes, and “it to be spring again”.

We see the immense wish to be an adult at last-as quickly as possible, and

that is why she is now referred as “wife” again.

The sentence that she wants it to be spring again could be understood

as stating her desire for a new spring in their relationship, now that the

process of her growing up has started and she might attempt to find those

basis which may help them to finally solve their problems. Although at the

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Thus, we also notice that the information is non-restrictive.

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The rain also symbolises the sadness that she feels and the loneliness.

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Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain”

time we left them, “It was getting dark”, “It was quite dark and still raining

in the palm trees.”

In the end, she gets a cat, brought by the maid on request of the

padrone. It does not seem to be the same cat, because the first one was a

small cat, referred as “kitty” or “the poor kitty” and this is “a big tortoise-

shell cat”; however, the important thing is that she finally gets something to

take responsibility for and that symbolises the first step in the direction of a

grown-up life. However, even though she seems to be going forward and

improving herself, it seems that their relationship is not going to make any

progress, and in this sense, it is “the American wife” the one that can be

understood to resemble a forlorn cat, a cat in the rain.

In conclusion, most of Hemingway’s stories come out of the author’s

consideration of the relation between life and art and also out of guilt for

his art’s effect upon his life. There is a close link between the story the

narrator (omniscient narrator) is telling and Hemingway himself. There

seems to be certain autobiographical undertone. But, in general, “A Cat in

the Rain” is a recapitulation of Hemingway’s philosophy of life. He

believed that people were isolated, lonely and not able to establish happy

relationships.

Hemingway wrote stories by and for rational creatures
who care about feeling cool and clear inside
themselves, who care about a clean, well-lighted place
for thought and action within the necessary human
limitations. As long as anyone cares for these, the
greatness and cogency of Hemingway’s short stories
will remain undiminished. (Magill,6002).

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Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain”

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

 The Harper American Literature. U.S.A: Harper College

Publishers, 1993, vol. 2, pp. 1154-1158.

 The Norton Anthology of American Literature. U.S.A: W.W.

Norton and Company, Inc., 1994, pp. 1633-1635.

 Magill, Frank N. (ed), Masterplots. U.S.A: Magill, 1976, vol.10,

p.6002.

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