Griffin's Review of Ernest Hemingway's Cat in the Rain
Works Cited
Griffin, Peter. "A Foul Mood, A Dirty Joke: Hemingway 's 'Cat In The Rain '." Hemingway Review 20.2 (2001): 99-102. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
Griffin’s review of Ernest Hemingway’s work “Cat in the Rain” was an interesting one. His views about the work were not agreed upon by all authors. In his view both Hemingway and his wife were suffering from depression at the time. In spite of everything that Hemingway and his wife had tried in taking the necessary precautions to not get pregnant, she in fact did get pregnant. Griffin’s view is that the rain in the story symbolized negative feelings or emotions of remorse or unhappiness. He goes on later to talk about how Hemingway knew that the female sense was touch and not sight, which apparently he knew from a very early age:
Asked if he were afraid of the dark or of walking in the woods alone, Ernest would claim he was “afraid of nothing.” But then he would cuddle around Grace’s neck, asking to play “‘Kitty, ‘where Mama be the Mama kitty and strokes him and purrs.” “He pats my face in the night, “ Grace [his mother] wrote, “and squeezes up so close . . . and sings ‘Ah’ which is the way he loves” (Griffin 8).
I found that to be a bit contradictory since he claimed not to be afraid of anything. A man that fears nothing but yet needs the gentle stroking of a woman’s touch to calm his fears. His wife obviously wanted the same kind of touch and affection and went seeking it elsewhere in the company of a stray cat that was wondering outside their room looking for a warm spot to
Griffin, Peter. "A Foul Mood, A Dirty Joke: Hemingway 's 'Cat In The Rain '." Hemingway Review 20.2 (2001): 99-102. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
Griffin’s review of Ernest Hemingway’s work “Cat in the Rain” was an interesting one. His views about the work were not agreed upon by all authors. In his view both Hemingway and his wife were suffering from depression at the time. In spite of everything that Hemingway and his wife had tried in taking the necessary precautions to not get pregnant, she in fact did get pregnant. Griffin’s view is that the rain in the story symbolized negative feelings or emotions of remorse or unhappiness. He goes on later to talk about how Hemingway knew that the female sense was touch and not sight, which apparently he knew from a very early age:
Asked if he were afraid of the dark or of walking in the woods alone, Ernest would claim he was “afraid of nothing.” But then he would cuddle around Grace’s neck, asking to play “‘Kitty, ‘where Mama be the Mama kitty and strokes him and purrs.” “He pats my face in the night, “ Grace [his mother] wrote, “and squeezes up so close . . . and sings ‘Ah’ which is the way he loves” (Griffin 8).
I found that to be a bit contradictory since he claimed not to be afraid of anything. A man that fears nothing but yet needs the gentle stroking of a woman’s touch to calm his fears. His wife obviously wanted the same kind of touch and affection and went seeking it elsewhere in the company of a stray cat that was wondering outside their room looking for a warm spot to
Bibliography: Web. 28 Feb. 2012. Griffin’s review of Ernest Hemingway’s work “Cat in the Rain” was an interesting one. His views about the work were not agreed upon by all authors. In his view both Hemingway and his wife were suffering from depression at the time. In spite of everything that Hemingway and his wife had tried in taking the necessary precautions to not get pregnant, she in fact did get pregnant. Griffin’s view is that the rain in the story symbolized negative feelings or emotions of remorse or unhappiness. He goes on later to talk about how Hemingway knew that the female sense was touch and not sight, which apparently he knew from a very early age: Asked if he were afraid of the dark or of walking in the woods alone, Ernest would claim he was “afraid of nothing.” But then he would cuddle around Grace’s neck, asking to play “‘Kitty, ‘where Mama be the Mama kitty and strokes him and purrs.” “He pats my face in the night, “ Grace [his mother] wrote, “and squeezes up so close . . . and sings ‘Ah’ which is the way he loves” (Griffin 8). I found that to be a bit contradictory since he claimed not to be afraid of anything. A man that fears nothing but yet needs the gentle stroking of a woman’s touch to calm his fears. His wife obviously wanted the same kind of touch and affection and went seeking it elsewhere in the company of a stray cat that was wondering outside their room looking for a warm spot to rest.