Minimalism in Cat in the Rain Essay

Hemingway’s Americans’ continual desire for more alienates them from the rest of society, proving their lack of understanding for the world. In “Cat in the Rain,” an American couple is vacationing in Italy. Instead of admiring the beauty of their surroundings, the Americans instead focus on irrelevant trivial pursuits, illustrating their greed. After going down to retrieve the cat, the wife is immediately attracted to the hotel owner, proving Americans ever-evolving want for new things: “She liked the way he wanted to serve her. [...] She liked his old, heavy face and big hands” (Hemingway 130). Instead of staying loyal to her husband, the American wife forgets he exists and moves on to the next best person she finds, showing the apathy Americans possess for what they already have. Additionally, the hotel owner is simply doing his job, and the American wife’s failure to realize this results from her greed, which severely clouds her judgement. The greed Americans possess is further proven with the American wife’s childish behavior throughout the story. When the wife cannot find the cat, she complains, “I wanted it so much [...] I don’t know why I wanted it so much” (130). Back in the hotel room, the wife demands to her husband that she “want[s] to pull [her] hair back,” and to “have a kitty to sit on [her] lap and purr when [she] stroke[s] her” (131). The

The girl, the American and the woman all symbolize the decision that must be made. The girl symbolizes youth, innocence and naivety. She is totally ignorant of the consequences of an abortion because she is young, beautiful and in the prime of her life, and experiencing new things all the time. Hemingway uses her to show a young, pregnant girl trying to decide if she wants to remain carefree like the American or if she wants to be like the woman and be wise and mature. The girl battles back and forth with an inner conflict, two different sides pulling at her final decision; If she has her baby she will ruin her youthfulness and destroy her romantic relationship with the American, but it very well could transform her into a woman who is wise, mature and focused on someone other than herself. The girl is getting tired of the same routine of drinks and a social life and she decides to do something very different. She decides to keep her baby, to become a woman and leave her carefree and childish ways behind. However, the only thing that is standing between the girl and the life she wants for herself and her child is the American.

the plot in the story, the minimalistic style, and theme, the author better develops and conveys

The storyteller begins the story by stating from an early age he has had an obsession with animals. Poe states, “This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and, in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure.” (Poe) This statement is evidence of the insanity the narrator experienced at a very young age. He goes on to explain that he and his wife have many domesticated animals, including Pluto, a large beautiful black cat. He describes the mutual fondness between him and the cat. This relationship between him and the cat, is strange. For years they have a growing friendship, until he started drinking alcohol in excess. The narrator goes on to explain how one night after getting completely intoxicated, the cat panicked and bit him. This causes the author to become angry and in a psychotic fit of rage, he takes a knife and cuts out one of the cat’s eyes. After this encounter, the cat fears him, and tries to avoid him at all cost. In the beginning, the storyteller is regretful and feels remorseful for the cruelty. But soon we see the narrator’s insanity expressed when Poe states, “But this feeling soon gave place

            The word choice and ordering of detail of this book also leads one to believe that they are reading a classic.  Hemingway's style is one of simple, straightforward dialogue with the absence of slang.  Many generations of readers can read and understand the story. An example of this simplicity of dialogue is as follows:

I believe that the cat was the only thing that showed her love and attention. Her only son, had a family of his own, her grandchildren were older now, and she felt like she was not important to them anymore, and the children?s mother was involved with the baby. By bringing the cat, she felt like she would not be lonely. The reader can also tell that the woman is extremely prejudice. She refers to the black child as a ?cute little pickaninny? and a nigger.

The kitten also has symbolic uses, adding to the message conveyed by Barton. Cats, historically are represented as intuitive and independent. Freely expressing themselves and not relying on other for comfort. With the kitten in Barton’s image, desperately clawing at the woman’s hand, and the woman holding the kitten close to her chest, it signifies the urgent attempt for the woman, or women in general, to pertain to sexual

The literary critic Bryan Aubrey further discusses Carver’s work in a “Critical Essay on a Small, Good Thing”. The critical analysis explores how Carver uses minimalism to emphasize menace in people’s lives. The short and condensed sentences provide a realistic and serious tone for the reader, a good example of this is shown in the short story “A Small, Good Thing”. The tone that is present throughout the story is sadness. Sadness helps create the theme of the story that the world we all live in is a tough one. Carver use’s this theme as a reminder to his readers that life can be cruel at times, and the only thing people can do is reach out to each other as the Weiss family did with the Baker after their son’s death. The minimalistic style used in this short story synthesizes the underlying reality that bad things can happen to innocent people at any given moment. No matter who you are and how many good deeds you may have done, we still all share the same fate called death. Carver use’s death as his source of hidden menace because many people are paranoid that their lives may suddenly end, no one fully understands what life and death is. This is a smart way to provide a necessary tension

Shortly after, the family is about to set off for Florida. After a brief conversation, Bailey forbids his mother from bringing the cat along for the ride. Once again, the Author expresses her view of her self-absorbed, callous mother through the grandmother. Going against her son’s orders, she decides to bring the cat anyways, for fear it may miss her too much or, in a freak accident, asphyxiate itself on on the gas burners. An utterly selfish action for nothing more than getting what she wants, just because she wants it. This action would prove to be disastrous in the end, showing the self destructive behavior of a woman unfit to be called a “mother” by O’Connor.

The cat to her is the symbol of her desperation to have a child -

Moreover, it has been argued that the cat is a metaphor for the narrator’s wife. Critics claim that the following passage raises suspicion that the killing of the first cat was actually the murder of his own wife. Poe writes: Norton Anthology American Literature. 7th. 1. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008. 705-711. Print.

In the story “A Clean, Well- Lighted Place” by Earnest Hemingway begins with the main character and his co-worker in a café. The two are analyzing, and discussing a deaf, drunk Oldman, who is their last customer of the day. As the deaf old man insists on having more whiskey, the main character informs the young waiter as to why and how the old man tried to commit suicide. They began to converse about the Oldman’s depressed life. The younger waiter is in a rush to go home to his wife, while the older waiter is patient and he stands up for the Oldman, being able to relate to him. Hemingway’s sentence structure and writing style represents the comparison and contrast between setting, people, and objects, along with emphasizing how it is to have and be nothing.

Having moved into a new house, the narrator happens across a black cat, which then follows him home. Nerves rattled, the narrator does his best to avoid the cat. When that fails he tries to kill it, accidentally killing his wife in the process. After sealing his wife's body into the basement wall, he is interviewed by the police. Not unlike in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator of “The Black Cat” cracks under the pressure of his guilt and gives himself up. Symbolism and suspense make “The Black Cat” worth reading.

Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner were two of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. While they lived during the same period, their writing styles differed drastically. This can be seen in texts such as Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”. Hemingway’s style puts little focus on specific character details, which makes his stories seem like they could be about any person, including the reader, while Faulkner’s style puts a lot of focus on specific character details, which makes every detail and every character seem important to the reader. Both authors have styles indirect to their points, which forces the readers to figure out information on their own and leaves the purposes of texts more open to interpretation.

structure light and simple. As a result, his writing is straightforward, and the reader makes no