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| Wet kitty. |
Cat in the Rain is quintessential Hemingway. Similar to his other short-fiction, nothing really happens in terms of plot. It's all about inference, reading between the lines, suggestion, metaphor, everything left unsaid.
An American couple is vacationing at a hotel in Italy. The wife is looking out the window on a rainy day and sees a cat hiding under a table. She tells her husband that she wants to rescue the cat. The husband, George, is indifferent towards his wife and even snaps at her out of sheer annoyance. The emotional isolation between them is palpable.
Perhaps the cat represents the wife’s unfulfilled emotional needs, especially her desire for care, agency and connection within an emotionally distant marriage. Hemingway’s minimalist style makes the lack of warmth between the couple more striking. George remains passive and disengaged, absorbed in his reading, while his wife longs for small comforts: the cat, longer hair, silverware, candles. These details suggest a craving for stability, nurturing and being seen. The rain and the closed hotel room reinforce her sense of confinement and isolation.
Importantly, the cat isn’t just about wanting a pet; it’s about wanting something to care for and, implicitly, wanting to be cared about. The hotelkeeper’s brief attentiveness contrasts sharply with George’s indifference, underscoring how starved she is for simple kindness. When a cat is eventually sent to her (possibly not even the same one) it suggests a hollow attempt to satisfy a deeper need that remains unresolved. This story exposes the emotional emptiness beneath this seemingly ordinary relationship filled with longing and dissatisfaction.
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