Review on "Cat in the Rain"

Review on Cat in The Rain of Ernest Hemingway A couple of Americans traveled in Italy. At the hotel, on a raining day, the wife found a cat crouched in the rain and wanted to take the cat and possess it. She went out and searched the cat in the rain, to find it had gone. Coming back, she told her husband her wish to change her hair style and was turned down by her husband. After her several other wishes were also turned down, a waitress of the hotel knocked the door, at the demand of the hotel owner, and sent her a cat. These are the main plots of Hemingway’s novel, Cat in The Rain. Main characters in the story are the American wife and her husband. Hemingway’s purpose of writing this novel is to illustrate the relationship between the couple. But when focusing on the simple but meaningful story, it’s easy to get confused, or even worse, get nothing out of it. In this novel, as many people have pointed out, there are many metaphors. Like the cat and the rain. These metaphors could lead us to the theme. In the very first paragraph, we can see that the description is showing the state of the couple’s relationship: at first it was once quite nice, just like the beautiful scene outside, and when it’s raining, their relationship got cold, too. And also, readers can find three symbols: the sea, the garden and the war monument, which can be seen in the American couple’s room. Compared with the sea, the garden is much delicate. In some cases, the garden may be washed out by the sea at ease. The garden is at the mercy of the sea. This scene, together with the monument, illustrates the background of the novel. As for the monument, it’s the symbol of conflict and sacrifice. This symbol indicates that a “war” is ahead. We would have a better understanding in the following paragraphs. The first scene in the room is the out-looking wife and her husband who is lying on the bed. Viewing this, the relationship of the couple is obvious to readers: they do not enjoying a happy life.