The story”Cat in the Rain” was written by Ernest Hemingway reflected an american couple,that they spent their holidays in an Italy hotel. The American woman stood at the window and saw a cat in the rain, which she wanted to protect from rain. When she went out of the hotel, which is kept by an old Italian who really seemed to do everything to please that woman, and wanted to get the cat, it is gone. After returning to the hotel room, she started a conversation with her husband George, who is reading all the time, telling him how much she wanted to have a cat . Her husband seems to be annoyed by that and not interested at all. At the end of the story there was a knock on the door and the maid stands there holding a cat for the American woman in her hands. Ernest Hemingway used the main stylistic devices,it are repetition ( “She liked the deadly serious way he received any complains. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands “.). As the verb “to like” is not used to characterize relations of the wife to her husband, this contrast is full of the hidden. The author underlines the idea of dissatisfaction using repetition. The repetition of the word ‘want’ creates gradation: “I wanted it so much. I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty.” From merely stating the fact the woman goes to repeating it, which shows her emotional state. It proves that she wanted the cat very much and helps the reader feel her great disappointment about not getting it. The cat was the only thing she could have; it could have been the only good thing in her life. But it has gone. The verb ‘to read’ is repeated many times to prove that her husband found a way to escape the reality, not a way to deal with it: “Her husband went on reading”, “George was on the bed, reading”, “George was reading again”. In repetition of the construction “I want” the reader can see the girl’s emotional state. This stylistic device discloses her enthusiasms, she is on the verge of hysterics. The emotional state, “And I want to eat at a table with my own silver, and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush up my hair out in front of the mirror and I want the kitty and I want some new clothes “. Here is an example of polysyndeton. The syntax also contributes to the effect of extreme agitation of the girl. The author suggested the use of commas in the girl’s speech to show uninterrupted. The word “rain” symbolizes their unfortunate family life. The girl stubbornly continues: “Anyway I want a cat – she says. -I want a cat. I want a cat now . If I can’t have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat”. Suddenly she realizes that her marital life was not successful and the cat for her is the only possibility to feel satisfaction. But her husband does not care about it. He even does not listen to her. Probably he never thought over their life. To the end of the story the author agreed the girl’s wish and she gets the cat. But it is this very device that makes the reader realize that the girl won’t be satisfied, that she never be happy with her husband. And this big tortoise-shell cat does not symbolize home and comfort. It won’t bring her happiness, sooner it symbolizes the opportunity. From the point of view of syntax the text includes a lot of long sentences. All these language means reveal the author’s manner, his style of writing. Anyone could be either that American woman or the American man. This fact lets us imagine ourselves in these characters’ shoes, try to learn from their mistakes. Thus, through the description of these universal characters, belonging to the lost generation, the author effectively communicates the way people lived in those years, what they felt and what they had to deal with. It lets the reader travel to that time, to learn something about the past and its atmosphere.
alinus92 