Student Question
What moral value is presented in Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain"?
Quick answer:
The moral value in Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" is the importance of social and human interaction. The story contrasts the American husband's insensitivity and emotional detachment from his wife's needs with the respectful and considerate behavior of the hotel owner and maid, illustrating the negative consequences of social withdrawal and highlighting the necessity of fulfilling emotional and social needs.
Hemingway's short story "Cat in the Rain" is essentially a
symbolic story of wants and needs. As an American
social critic, the story "Cat in the Rain," like so many of his other
works, features Americans living in Europe, specifically Italy; most likely,
they are even ex-patriots. As a social critic, Hemingway portrays the
American husband as being particularly insensitive to his
wife's wants and needs, but Hemingway even presents the wife as being
scared to fulfill her own wants and needs. Instead, it is the
hotel owner who sees to the American wife's protection and wants. Hence, if we
are to draw a moral from the story, it would be that
Americans, and those like Americans, are far too withdrawn from social
interaction.
Hemingway juxtaposes the husband's actions against the
hotel owner's actions . When the wife declares that she is going...
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down to get the kitty, her husband offers to do it but actually does not move a muscle. He continues lying on the bed, reading, showing no actual physical or emotional involvement in his wife or her wants and needs. In great contrast, the hotel owner shows her a great deal of respect. Not only does he bow to her, when she hesitates to go out into the rain, he sends the maid to hold the umbrella for the wife and to escort her out.
The wife's own hesitation to go out into the rain, like the
husband's hesitation, is also very important and very
symbolic. It symbolizes the fact that, while
her husband is disinterested in fulfilling her wants and needs, she herself is
also too scared to fulfill them herself. Instead, she
requires the human touch and human interaction from both the
hotel owner and the maid in order for her to be brave enough to try. We
especially see the lack of human touch and interaction she is receiving from
her husband when, back in the hotel room, she asks her husband if she should
grow her short hair out because she is tired of it looking like a boy's. Her
husband's reply is, "You look pretty darn nice," which is a very
emotionless response to come from a husband. Note the fact
that he does not say she looks beautiful or lovely. Plus, the fact that he
seems to want her to look like a boy symbolizes the lack of passion, romance,
and human touch and interaction in their marriage. When she even commences to
complain about all the things she wants, such as her own silver, candles,
springtime, to brush her hair, a kitty, and new clothes, his response is, "Oh,
shut up and get something to read," again showing just how uninvolved
he is with his wife and her wants and needs. At the end of the story,
it is again the Italian maid who fulfills at least one the wife's wants by
bringing her the "big tortoiseshell cat." Since it is the Italians and not the
American husband who interacts with the American wife, this shows us
Hemingway's complaint that Americans are far too
socially withdrawn, which further conveys the moral
lesson of just how wrongful and unjust a lack of social and
human interaction can be.