“Cat in the Rain” 1 - a realist text?

Paste your original notes/summary of the story here:

An American wife with his husband travels to the south of Italy for a holiday. One day,
whilst raining, the husband stayed inside the hotel, reading his newspaper. His wife
curious of a small cat outside of her window - sparked a thought of wanting to make it her
own pet. She travels down, petting the cat. After a while, the cat has gone missing; she
asked the cafe’s waiter to find it for her. However, a new cat arrives, which is not the
original.

“Cat in the Rain” is traditionally interpreted as an example of a ‘realist’ text. A ‘realist’ text
presents its subject matter as a direct reflection of the world, seeing and describing things as
they are. It hides the fact that, like all representations of the world, whether in writing,
painting or speech, it must also be an interpretation. It does not draw attention to the way it
is written.

Activity: Skim read the story again, picking out four or five places where Hemingway seems
to you to be ‘seeing and describing things as they are’ - i.e. writing a ‘realist’ text. Compare
your choices with the person next to you and spend a few minutes talking about why these
examples illustrate the features of a realist text.

Make a note (or a recording) of your discussion below in the box:

Realist interpretation (factual description - seeing and describing as things are) - simple
sentence “It was raining.”

Repetition - ‘rain’ and ‘the sea’

Topic sentence: Hemingway shows the mundanity of the environment by the use of
pathetic fallacy.

Challenging the realist reading

Critical theories, such as ​feminism, structuralism and psychoanalytic​ (TBC) criticism have
challenged the assumptions on which realist texts depend. These theories argue that all
texts offer a particular interpretation of the world and that readers should not accept the
‘realist’ text at face value.
Carlos Baker - one critical interpretation

Activity: Read Carlos Baker’s overview of his interpretation of the story below, and jot down
the main points he makes.

‘Cat in the Rain’, another story taken in part from the woman’s point of view, presents a
corner of the female world in which the male is only tangentially involved. It was written at
Rapallo* in May, 1923.

From the window of a hotel room where her husband is reading and she is fidgeting, a
young wife sees a cat outside in the rain. When she goes to get it, the animal (which
somehow stands in her mind for comfortable bourgeois domesticity) has disappeared. The
fact is very close to ​tragic​ because of the cat’s association in her mind with many other
things she longs for: long hair she can do in a knot at the back of her neck; a
candle-lighted dining table where her own silver gleams; the season of spring and nice
weather; and of course, some new clothes. But when she puts these wishes into words,
her husband mildly advises her to shut up and find something to read. ‘Anyway’, says the
young wife, ‘I want a cat. 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 poor girl is the referee in a face-off between the actual and the
possible. The actual is made of rain, boredom, a preoccupied husband, and irrational
yearnings. The possible is made of silver, spring, fun, a new coiffure*, and new dresses.
Between the actual and the possible, stands the cat. It is finally sent up to her by the
knightly old inn-keeper, whose sympathetic deference if greater than that of the young
husband.

*in Italy
*Coiffure = hairstyle

Main points of this overview:

‘tragic’ not having what she wanted isn't necessarily ‘tragic’ because she is living a horrible
life, compared to many people who have a more tragic life than her.

‘Referee’ is a more controlling profession, like how they judge what is wrong and right.
She is not really a controlling personality to do things of her free will - the husband is more
controlling.

Look again at your original notes on the story and, using different colours, annotate the
Baker extract (highlight/notes) to show the following:
- Anything about Baker’s reading you want to challenge
- Anything you agree with
- Statements that make you re-consider your own reading