Symbolism in Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemingway Essay -- Ernest Hemin

Symbolism in Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemingway In his short story Cat in the Rain, Ernest Hemingway uses imagery and subtlety to convey to the reader that the relationship between the American couple is in crisis and is quite clearly dysfunctional. In other words, the reader has to have a symbolic reading of the images. In fact, what seems to be a simple tale of an American couple spending a rainy afternoon inside their hotel room serves as a great metaphor for their relationship. This symbolic imagery, hided behind common objects, gives the story all its significance. This short story contains a great number of striking and literary symbols. In a symbolic reading, the opening paragraph describes the crisis that exists in the marriage of the couple. In other words, the description of the bad weather, of the "empty square"[1](l.10) and of their isolation, reflects this conflict and also sets the negative mood. In fact, since the beginning, Ernest Hemingway insists on the isolation of the couple that "does not know any of the people they passed" (ll.1-2) and are "only two Americans"(l.1). Here it is interesting to notice that they are isolated from the outside world but also from each other. There is no communication and they have no contact, they are distant from each other. Then this isolation is accentuated because of the weather, it is raining. The rain is part responsible for the fact that they have to stay in their room. Nevertheless, the rain has a symbolic meaning together with the description of the public garden. It represents as suggests the critic John V. Hagopian the "lack of fertility"[2] (p.230) . This lack is a... ...t the cat, the story would lose much of both their colour and clarity. Moreover, Ernest Hemingway has succeeded very well in this story in showing that individualism of the people living with their own problem is in many case the cause of split and despair. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1]All further references are to this edition : Ernest Hemingway, "Cat in the Rain" . The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, ed. Jackson J. Berson (Dwham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1975). [2] John V. Hagopian, "Symmetry in 'Cat in the Rain'", College English, XXIV (December 1962). [3] John V. Hagopian, "Symmetry in 'Cat in the Rain'", College English, XXIV (December 1962). [4] John V. Hagopian, "Symmetry in 'Cat in the Rain'", College English, XXIV (December 1962).