Analysis
The short story “Cat in the Rain” by Ernest Hemingway follows a traditional plot structure while including narrative techniques like backstory and foreshadowing. We also notice Hemingway’s minimalistic style, which he called the Iceberg Theory, where many details of the story require interpretation to find.
The characters include the American wife as the main character, George (her husband), the owner of the hotel, and the maid as secondary characters. Note that two other characters – the waiter at the café across the hotel, and a man in a rubber cape – also appear in the story.
The events take place in and around a hotel in Italy. The social setting explores topics such as married life, gender, and traditional and modern culture.
The events are described by a third-person narrator with a limited point of view, who sometimes conveys the main character’s perspective. Fitting Hemingway’s writing style, which focuses on the surface elements of a story, the narrator is generally not explicit about the deeper meaning of the events.
The narrator uses simple language, combining English with Italian phrases, which helps with the realism of the setting. The story is told in a minimalistic style, with symbolism hinting at the deeper meaning of the events.
You can read the full analysis in the following pages.