Cat in the Rain
Gladys Contreras
Dr. M. Leiby
English 1B Honors
14 Oct 2010
Analysis Paper 1
A Means to An End
“Cat in the Rain” is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. He was able to portray women’s problems and also their ability to respond to their sadness with affinity. The story revolves around the relationship of George and his wife, traveling to an unknown place where the wife gets to voice out her sentiments in her life. Initially, George looks nice, but he is actually cruel. On the other hand, the wife looks calm, yet deep inside she is not. Although George and his wife appear to have different attitudes towards each other, these dispositions are conveyed through the wife’s insecurities, the conflict of neglect between George and his wife, and the restraints of their relationship.
First of all, the insecurities of the wife reveals through the setting of the story and the wife’s appearance. The story begins with gloomy, sad and unhappy feeling from the lines that says “It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees.” (78) Whenever it rains, a person tends to be gloomy since it is dark, and it is cloudy outside. The gloomy feeling starts with the wife’s insecurities. She begins to look at herself differently. She is not satisfied anymore by how she looks. She tells her husband, “I get so tired looking like a boy.” (79) The wife is already showing that she does not like how she looks anymore. She feels that George is not anymore sexually attracted to her. He looks at her without lust because as of the moment she has short hair, and she wants to grow her hair longer and yet her husband says “You look pretty darn nice” (79). The husband replies in a normal way, but it appears that he just tells her that line just to make her stop ranting about her looks. Not only is she insecure because of her looks, but she is also insecure over the lack of attention that George gives her. George neglects his wife because he looks at her with indifference. The wife keeps
Dr. M. Leiby
English 1B Honors
14 Oct 2010
Analysis Paper 1
A Means to An End
“Cat in the Rain” is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. He was able to portray women’s problems and also their ability to respond to their sadness with affinity. The story revolves around the relationship of George and his wife, traveling to an unknown place where the wife gets to voice out her sentiments in her life. Initially, George looks nice, but he is actually cruel. On the other hand, the wife looks calm, yet deep inside she is not. Although George and his wife appear to have different attitudes towards each other, these dispositions are conveyed through the wife’s insecurities, the conflict of neglect between George and his wife, and the restraints of their relationship.
First of all, the insecurities of the wife reveals through the setting of the story and the wife’s appearance. The story begins with gloomy, sad and unhappy feeling from the lines that says “It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees.” (78) Whenever it rains, a person tends to be gloomy since it is dark, and it is cloudy outside. The gloomy feeling starts with the wife’s insecurities. She begins to look at herself differently. She is not satisfied anymore by how she looks. She tells her husband, “I get so tired looking like a boy.” (79) The wife is already showing that she does not like how she looks anymore. She feels that George is not anymore sexually attracted to her. He looks at her without lust because as of the moment she has short hair, and she wants to grow her hair longer and yet her husband says “You look pretty darn nice” (79). The husband replies in a normal way, but it appears that he just tells her that line just to make her stop ranting about her looks. Not only is she insecure because of her looks, but she is also insecure over the lack of attention that George gives her. George neglects his wife because he looks at her with indifference. The wife keeps
Cited: "Ernest Hemingway Biography." Biography Base Home. GNU Free Documentation License., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. Hemingway, Ernest. “Cat in the Rain.” A Little Literature. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto and William E. Cain. San Francisco: Longman, 2007. 78-80. Print.