Cat
in the Rain review
Author- Ernest Hemingway
Genre- realistic fiction
Setting- Italy, around early 19
th century.
Characters- American girl, hotel owner, maid, George (the
girl’s husband)
Style- Narrative
Structure- describes tension between the couple
Themes, ideas- bad relationships in families
A typical Hemingway story about problems within families and
a member with an unhealthy obsession for a certain object, this story is about an
American couple who went to Italy for vacation, and what follows when the wife
sees a cat under a table on a rainy day. This story was one of many stories included in Hemingway's collection of his own stories, "In Our Time". Very easy to read and understand, although not much depth is included in the plot, and is very straightforward and therefore not extremely though-provoking.
FINAL RATING
Readability- 8
Entertainment- 4
Thought-provoking- 3
TOTAL SCORE- 15/30.
1 comment:
You are probably not doing full justice to this story, which is generally considered a 'classic'. Although the plot is very spare, it is extremely resonant - and it suggests many questions. We don't, for example, know anything about this couple, or why they are unhappy, but we are encouraged to speculate about these things.
You should give a little more thought to the metaphorical dimension of the story: is the young wife paralleled to the bedraggled cat? If so, what is the 'rain' in her life, and what is the shelter she craves?
And what is the possible significance of the hotel owner giving her a cat at the end? Is it the same cat she saw earlier?
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