With economically structured sentences conveying abundant messages, Cat in the Rain, a distinctive Hemingwayan short story, portrays a world of isolated people after World WarⅠ.

The story takes place in an Italian hotel. Driven by sympathy, an American wife, who stays at Italy with her husband, saves in vain a cat “crouched under one of the dripping green table” (Hemingway). With “her compassion aroused” (John V. Hagopian), she starts a conversation with her husband, in an attempt to express her strong desire of possessing a cat. However, George, the husband engaged in reading all the time, adopts a very indifferent attitude towards her, which poses a sharp contrast with the hospitality of the hotel owner. Their marriage is absent of understanding and communication.

Isolation is a dominant atmosphere throughout the whole story. The couple was isolated from others, since “they did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs” (Hemingway); their room was isolated, because “it faced the sea, the public garden and the war monument” (Hemingway). Most important of all, they themselves are isolated. The husband is absorbed in learning all day, while the wife is inclined to complain continuously. Instead of the issue of marriage crisis many critics insist that the story focuses on, the author aims to convince the readers how isolated people at that time were since even a married life, regarded as “traditional symbol of unity and mutual understanding” (Mazdrad), could be engulfed alike.

In such an isolated world, the spouse is undoubtedly the exact person from whom one hopefully seeks for understanding. When the husband fails to fulfill this obligation which he is supposed to do, small wonder that his wife turns to others for help. The cat in the rain represents, as a matter of fact, the target to which he can give the responsibility and care, and with which she can share her feelings. In this sense, “she is not necessarily looking for a specific cat. It can be any cat and it actually can be a child” (Mazdrad). This is echoed at the end of the story when the maid brings another cat.

Having directly witnessed and experienced the World WarⅠ, Hemingway knows well the detrimental effects of this disastrous event. The husband belongs to the category that “does not concern themselves with affairs of the outside world” (Zhang Zheng), while the wife is representative of “the unrealistically optimistic dreamers” (Zhang Zheng). Under such distorted post-war attitudes towards the outside world and surrounding people, it is inevitable that isolated mood is prevailing.

Works Cited:

Hagopian, John V. Symmetry in “Cat in the Rain”. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press

Zhang, Zheng. Reality and Illusion. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press

Mazdrad. A Commentary on Hemingway’s A Cat in the Rain. www.echeat.com, 2005