One of the most important themes in Hemingway’s short story “Cat in the Rain” is isolation. The American wife depicted in the story feels emotionally estranged from her husband, so much so that she seeks the companionship of a cat.

The cat has a twofold meaning to the story and the American woman. First, the cat symbolizes how human beings are often faced with larger, more hostile forces than they can contend with on their own. Second, the cat symbolizes the situation of the women in her relationship.

Short Story

Background. According to the book Hemingway’s Cats, Hemingway wrote the story as a tribute to his wife Hadley. She asked for a cat but he told her they were too poor. When she became pregnant he wrote “Cat in the Rain”, apparently based on an incident in Rapallo (where they visited Ezra Pound in 1923).

Bill is Nick’s friend who encouraged Nick to end his relationship with Marjorie. Bill appears again in “The Three-Day Blow”.

Ernest Hemingway

(b) What effect will the rain have on the following : Ans. kitty : the lazy kitten’s feet will get washed.

The main conflict in the story is between the wife’s wishes and her inability to realize them. Even though she doesn’t explicitly say so, it’s perfectly clear from her behavior that she’s thoroughly bored with the daily grind of her family life and wants so much more than she’s currently getting.

The most important characters in “Cat in the Rain” by Ernest Hemingway are the American wife, as the main character, and her husband, George, as a secondary character. Secondary characters also include the hotel owner, the hotel maid, and the waiter at the café and a man in a rubber cape.

George is his wife’s antagonist because his sedentary, intellectual state of being is directly opposed to the kind of active, material life that the wife desires. This discrepancy is what gives us the marital conflict and the inevitable “‘shut up.

Cat in the Rain Characters

• The American Wife. The story’s protagonist is a nameless young American woman on holiday in Italy with her husband, George.
• George. The American wife’s husband, George spends most of the story reading on a bed in a hotel room in Italy.
• The Hotel-keeper.
• The Maid.

The American The male protagonist of the story. The American never reveals his name, nor does the girl ever directly address him by name. He is determined to convince the girl to have the operation but tries to appear as though he doesn’t care what she does.

Hills Like White Elephants Symbols

• Barren/Fertile Land. As the story opens, we are introduced first and foremost to the setting’s barren landscape, which is described as “brown and dry,” with “no shade” and “no trees.” Yet while the story feels as though…
• Light.
• Alcohol.
• The Train Station.

The main conflict in the story “Hills Like White Elephants ” is the debate between the man and his girlfriend Jig over whether or not to abort their unborn baby that Jig is carrying. The man obviously wants—and pressures—Jig to have an abortion while Jig is reluctant to go through with the procedure.

In Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” the protagonist is the American and the antagonist is the girl he calls Jig. He wants her to have an abortion, and she wants to have the baby.

Hemingway’s work Hills Like White Elephants communicates several political viewpoints―such as abortion and nationalistic inferiority―and conveys conflict through the use of imagery, symbolism, point-of-view, and setting. In the beginning of the short passage, Hemingway presents multiple images to set the mood.

The luggage symbolizes that Jig and the American are still very ambitious to travel around the world and if they were to keep the baby, their ambition would come to an end because the baby will come in the way.

Ernest Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is narrated in an omniscient third-person point of view. Hemingway’s minimalistic style doesn’t discuss many characters in the story, but rather focuses on their engagements and discourse. Jig is actually the one doing much of the decision making in the story.

Abstract. The ending of Hemingway’s 1927 story, “Hills Like White Elephants” was interpreted for decades in one way: the female protagonist surrenders to her partner’s wishes that she undergo abortion.