Isolation is the theme of this story, as indicated from the first two lines:

There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room.

More significantly, the unnamed husband and wife are isolated and alienated from each other. They don't seem well suited as a couple. The husband likes to read and is absorbed in his interior life. The wife lives externally, concerned with the outer world: her hair, her clothes, rescuing a kitty from the rain. She seems supremely dissatisfied with her life and seems to have the mistaken idea that if she changes her outer circumstances, her inner life will repair:

And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.

Both people in this relationship are wounded, members of the alienated Lost Generation that arose after World War I, unmoored from traditional values because of the horror of that carnage. The war becomes a part of their story through the nearby war monument that many Italians like to visit, presumably to mourn their losses. The two Americans each deal with their woundedness differently: the man withdraws into his book and becomes emotionally indifferent to his wife, while his withdrawal causes her to become more demanding.

The wife tries to deal with her inner emptiness by rescuing the wet cat outside in the way she would like to be rescued from her own predicament. She fails to connect with the cat, but as the story draws to a close, one of the Italian hotel workers brings her a different cat. The story ends with a thud of hopelessness: it is evident this cat is not going to fill the lonely hole in the wife's heart.

Hemingway uses short, spare words and brief dialogue to underscore the alienation and isolation the couple feels. He never intrudes with an omniscient narrator who tells us what the couple is experiencing but simply lets us realize it by showing us what is going on.

The theme of isolation is a common one in Hemingway's fiction, and it's very much on display in “Cat in the Rain.” It's typically the case that isolated characters in Hemingway are often surrounded by people or in close proximity to family members or lovers. Though they have people around them, they are still emotionally estranged from them for one reason or another.

That's certainly the case with the unnamed American wife in “Cat in the Rain”. She feels so isolated, despite the presence of her husband in the same hotel bedroom, that she ventures out into the pouring rain to fetch a cat that's trying to keep dry. The wife needs companionship, something that's being denied to her by a self-absorbed husband who doesn't take her needs into account. Hence the importance she attaches to saving the cat from the rain.

In the cat, the wife detects a kindred spirit—a creature that needs warmth, love, and attention; all the things that she's being denied by an indifferent, self-centered husband. Already feeling isolated by her husband, the rain, and staying in a foreign country, the wife desperately needs something to make her feel a connection with the world around her. At this precise moment in time, only the cat in the rain can do that.

The theme of Hemingway's short story "Cat in the Rain" is isolation, public and personal isolation. George and his unnamed "American wide," also called "American girl" by the narrator, come to vacation in Italy near the sea, by a "public garden," and by a "war monument."

The narrator makes the point that Italians come from great distances to see the war monument and that artists like to paint and draw it; yet George and his "American wife" seem almost stationary in their hotel room. Granted, it is raining, but the contrast to the Italians and the stasis with which Hemingway opens and closes the story, with George unmoved and in the same position, gives a sense of permanency to their indifference and isolation from public gardens, war memorials, and refreshing sea breezes.

It is this mood of stasis that represents public isolation: George and the girl are not involved in the activities of public living. Even the hotel owner acts on the wife's behalf by sending a maid after her with an umbrella when she fails to be involved enough to ask for one on her own behalf.

Their personal isolation is best illustrated after the wife comes back in from trying to rescue the kitty in the rain (symbolically representative of the "American wife" herself). She starts talking about wanting the kitty and other tangibles since she can't have any fun, which is symbolically representative of happiness:

"Anyway, I want a cat," she said, "I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat."

The narrator makes the point that George "hadn't looked away from her since she started to speak," saying, "You look pretty darn nice to me." This is the pivotal line of the short story, the line that points out the theme. She is so isolated that she can't recognize George's overtures of emotional intimacy, i.e., undivided attention and admiration. Once she resumes her litany of desire for the kitty and for material objects that replace involvement, he shows himself to be so equally isolated that instead of exerting himself to break through their isolation, he turns away and resumes reading a book, advising her to do the same: "Oh, shut up and get something to read."

What is the symbolism in "Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway?

In this short story, it seems as though just about everything is symbolic. Evidently, the story takes place shortly after World War I, an era in which many people feel quite disillusioned, when their ideas about the world had completely altered by the death and destruction they had witnessed. The two Americans are the only Americans at their hotel, isolated by their foreignness as well as by the location of their room and the rain which keeps them indoors. Their windows overlook "the war monument," and the "American girl," the wife, wants to rescue a cat that's stuck out in the rain. The couple seems to be vacationing in some small Italian beach town, and so the rain symbolizes their disappointment. They are disappointed with the world as it is now, with themselves, with the weather that ruins their beach holiday. The woman is only conscious of what she lacks: long hair, a cat, her own table with silver and candles, new clothes, and springtime. She has very short hair, like a boy's she thinks, and this style became popular after the war, in the 1920s; her sudden desire for long hair seems, then, to symbolize her desire to return to the way life was before the war, to the innocence the world seemed to possess before the hell broke loose. Likewise, her desire for spring symbolizes her desire for a return to innocence, before she became disillusioned with the world. As the season associated with youth and rebirth, spring is often connected to innocence and the young. Her desire for the cat seems to symbolize her desire to make some small difference in the world, to be able to protect something that seems innocent still; or, we might think of the cat as a symbol of the woman herself, vulnerable and sad, and in need of greater care than she receives from her inattentive husband.

What is the symbolism in "Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway?

In Ernest Hemingway's story "Cat in the Rain," the cat, of course, is symbolic as are the rain, the war monument, the hotel room, the woman's hair, and her desire for a table with her own silver and candles.

The cat is traditionally symbolic of that which is feminine. The fact that the little cat outside the hotel is wet and unable to shelter itself from the rain symbolizes the vulnerability of the "kitty," as the woman calls it. She sympathizes with this cat: "It isn't any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain." The woman would like to rescue it and protect it, just as she desires a rescue from her emotional estrangement from her husband and her nearly claustrophobic sense of isolation in the hotel room. She tells her husband, George, who sits dispassionately on the bed reading,

I want to have a kitty sit on my lap and purr when I stroke it....And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror...

This woman wants to feel like a woman (have a little creature to love), she wants to look and feel more feminine (have longer hair), and she wants to have a more romantic relationship between herself and her husband (wants it to be spring). She also wants a home (where they eat at a table with silverware and candles). She wants happiness and contentment. She wishes to no longer look at the war monument outside their window.

What is the symbolism in "Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway?

There are many symbols in this short, two page story. The first thing you probably noticed is that George and his wife do not have the greatest relationship. This is symbolized in the opening of the story by several things. First of all, it is raining. Hemingway uses rain in many of his stories to symbolize sadness. The fact that it is raining is mentioned six times in the opening paragraph. The couple is isolated from the people around them. This is reinforced by the fact that "they do not know anyone" and they are the only Americans in the hotel. Their room is also located on the second floor, away from the main floor of the hotel. When they get to their room, the wife, who is never given a name, sees the cat trying to get out of the rain in the square located below their room. She says she wants the kitty and George half-heartedly offers to get it for her. But, the wife, who is called the American girl as a symbol for her lack of maturity, actually tries to get the cat herself. Most critics think that the cat is actually a symbol for a child that the woman desperately wants. This is because the other things she wants are associated with femininity. She wants long hair and flowers and her own silverware. George completely ignores her complaints and tells her to "shut up and get something to read." Finally, the maid brings her a cat that seems to be a gift from the hotel keeper. This probably indicates that if the wife is ever going to have a child, it will have to be with another man. George, who is sitting on the bed reading during the entire story, is completely obvious to her needs and desires.

What is the message behind the short story "Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway?

The short story “Cat in the Rain” was written by Ernest Hemingway and was first published in 1925. The story is about a couple on holiday in Italy. It is raining outside and the wife feels sorry for a cat she sees outside, as it “was crouched under one of the dripping green tables.” She decides to go outside in order to rescue it, but the cat has disappeared by the time the woman gets there.

Despite the story being about a couple, the main theme in the story is loneliness. Through his story, Hemingway tries to show that it is possible to be in a relationship, yet still feel lonely and long for affection and companionship. The husband, George, clearly has no interest in talking to his wife, as he tells her to “shut up and get something to read” when his wife is trying to talk to him.

After having been in a relationship for a while, many people start to coast in a relationship. They start taking it for granted and they stop making an effort or taking an interest in the other person. This leads to people feeling lonely and isolated, as is the case for the woman in this story. She craves closeness and affection, but she is not getting that from her husband. She had hoped to find this in the company of the cat, but sadly the cat has gone.

One could even go as far as saying that perhaps the woman would like a child, but as the couple hasn’t got a child, having a cat would be the next best thing to make up for this.

Therefore, the main message of the story is that it is important to keep on working on a relationship, to keep each other company and to actively share each other’s joys and sorrows, rather than falling into the trap of coasting and indifference. Otherwise, according to Hemingway, this will lead to loneliness and a lack of fulfillment.

What is the symbolic function of the cat in "Cat in the Rain"?

A man, George, and his wife are in a hotel room in Italy. Their relationship seems troubled. The wife is bored and restless, and George is absorbed in his book. When the wife looks out the window and sees a cat crouching under a table, trying to be small so that will not get rained on, she immediately feels a sense of kinship with it and wants to save it from getting wet. Though her husband makes a half-hearted offer to get it for her, he is not really interested.

When she goes outside but cannot find the cat, the wife says to the hotel padrone:

"I wanted it so much," she said. "I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty. It isn't any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain."

The cat symbolizes the wife. Both are vulnerable and neglected beings who need attention and care. The wife wants the cat because she, too, feels "left out in the rain." She wants it so that she give it the affection her husband denies her and for which she has no other outlet. It is a version of herself that she wants to treat better than she is treated.

The indifference of the husband is highlighted by the care and attention the wife receives from the hotel staff. The maid holds the umbrella so that the wife won't get wet, and at the end, the staff finds a cat for her to have, though we are left with a sense of futility: even though a cat might occupy her time a bit, it is as incapable as she herself is of altering the emptiness in her relationship with her husband.