Cat in the Rain - Hemmingway

Cat in the rain
To choose a life partner. To get married and live happily ever after. Is this there any way to obtain or maintain happiness in a relationship, and is it realistic to? These are the thoughts you must consider when choosing the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. The American couples in this short story obviously have not had these thoughts and you feel the tension between them just below the surface.

The location is Italy and the weather is horrid. Hemmingway uses one fourth of the short story to describe the location and the weather. This is not a coincidence in such a short story; it is just the top of the iceberg. He starts out by describing how nice a place it is, weaving the reader into an illusion that this is going to be a cheerful story. But a couple of lines in, he breaks this illusion by telling us that is raining and how the place is empty and deserted, which gives the reader the impression of a cold and sad atmosphere. He also outlines the word break in the sentence ” The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain.” and by this Hemmingway is telling the reader that the American couples relationship has been and is broken. It is very possible that the war monument, which is mentioned three times during the intro, symbolizes a fight they have had and that is still haunting their relationship. The gravel paths are mentioned numerous times in the story, which also points to the fact that their relationship is very uneven.
The last thing to mention in the intro is the cat.   The funny thing about the cat is that it is referred to as ”her” which gives the reader a hint, that the wife sees herself in the cat. ”The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.” This implies that she is the one bending over backwards not to set off or anger George (the husband). The fact that she wants to help the cat, is a metaphor...