Cat in the Rain

             “Cat in the Rain” was an interesting story about the broken marriage of a traveling American couple. Once again, Hemingway succeeds at using the Iceberg Effect and eliminates the act of directly illustrating the issue at hand. He indirectly references the brokenness between the man and the woman’s marriage through the brief dialogue that occurs between them. The couple is on a trip to Italy during the holidays, and although it was raining outside, a trip of that nature should typically be an enjoyable and eventful occurrence. However, the husband cannot stop reading, and although he does pay his wife a couple of compliments, he doesn’t express any signs of affection or interest towards spending time with her during that rainy day in the hotel room. The woman is obviously desperately seeking attention, which is perhaps why she is so taken aback by the hotel owner. The man stands up and bows towards her in her presence, and in her attempt to rescue a cat from the pouring rain, he sends a maid with an umbrella to protect her. After the woman fails to find and save the cat, a maid shows up at the door of her hotel room holding the cat in her arms, claiming that the hotel owner had found it and had instructed her to deliver the cat to the room. The hotel owner shows more interest in the woman’s heart and desire for attention than her own husband.

             As I was reading this story in my bedroom behind a closed door overhearing my other roommates sing Christmas carols and decorate our home for Christmas, I slowly began to relate to the woman’s longing for attention and love, but in a much different way. The woman in the story longs for her lover to love her in the way he once did, perhaps as he once did when they were first married. She desires a renewed relationship with him, one filled with fun and enjoyment. The longing that I have discovered within my own heart is for the unconditional love and attention of another person. TCU is most certainly my home away from home. I have countless friends here, some who I will be friends with forever. However, I am most certainly a people person. I love spending my time with other people, sharing stories, listening to their stores, and developing relationships whenever and wherever possible. What I have felt in need of lately, though, is the unconditional love and attention of one person. My parents will forever love me and support me in all of my endeavors in life, but they live at home in Las Vegas. Same thing applies to my loving little sister. With a break-up with a serious boyfriend having just occurred and experiencing typical roommate issues, my heart longs to find just one person that can love me unconditionally and have fun doing things together, much like the attention the woman desires from her husband in the story. What I have begun to realize is that the Lord my God can be this person for me. I have found that through prayer and quiet time, I can depend on the Lord for unconditional love and attention, as well as a hand to hold and a heart to love whenever I am in need. I am never alone, and regardless of whether or not the woman and her husband’s relationship lasts, I hope that she can eventually discover the truth of this actuality herself.