A commentary on E.Hemingway's A Cat in the Rain
A commentary on E.Hemingway's A Cat in the Rain
The multi-faceted shapes and messages that the story has makes it a typical "Hemingwayan" short story. Hemingway was a "Lost Generation" era writer;one who directly witnessed and experienced some of the barbaric wars of the century and one who was personally injured in a war-front,reminding his readers of a character in "The Sun Also Rises"who was injured in a war and thus made sexually handicapped.
Hemingway manages to catch the post-war mood of disillusionment and dissatisfaction by forging an enormous impression through the economy of his style and the "toughness" of attitude of mind.
The aura encircling the present story is of such. The whole story can probably be recapped in its attempt at depicting the barrenness, sterility, incomprehensibility, and misunderstanding that rule the modern world and life which have immensely been affected by modern technology and the resultant automated, robotic life.
Among all these, lack of communication screams at us. Quite ironically, a world which enjoys incomparable wealth of technological communications, the modern man is unable to establish emotional contact with the people around him; this can even engulf a married life, traditional symbol of unity and mutual understanding.
The woman's strong child-wish and the man sexual impotence make it relatively taxing to have an emotional relation with one another. The wandering couple, both physically and psychologically, have their own pursuits in feeling from the mere thought of a child; the man seeks refuge among his books and the woman daydreams and thinks of saving or having a cat.
The only way that the woman finds in relieving herself from this situation is through making reveries or complaining. The reveries are those of possessing a child. When the Italian girl asks her if she lost something, she replies "Yes", a cat "under the table....Oh , I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty. "The indefinite article "a" in" I wanted a kitty "shows that she is not necessarily looking for a specific cat. It can be any cat and it actually can be a child. At her return George asks a cursory question, "Did you get the cat?".
For a moment he becomes reflective and thoughtful...