3. Female Sensibility of “Cat in the Rain” 6

3.1 The relationship between woman and husband 6

3.2 The relationship between woman and landlord 7

4. Ecological Consciousness of “Cat in the Rain” 9

4.1 The effect of the cat in the rain：The connection between female sensibility and ecological consciousness 9

4.2 The Image of Cat: The conflict between the wildcat and the domestic cat 10

4.3 The description of the Environment: The conflict between nature and civilization. 10

5. Conclusion 12

References 13

1. Introduction 

As one of the remarkable writer in America after World War I, Hemingway produced a great number of short stories and classical novels. “Cat in the Rain”, as Hemingway’s early work, was one of the premium fictions. It told a simple story about a young American couple who traveled in Europe. And the cat was the hint that ran through the whole context and through its misfortune. This fiction portrayed a scene: the wife caught a glimpse of a cat from the hotel’s window. The heavy rain aroused the woman’s sympathy that spurred her to bring back the cat. After she expressed her thought to her husband, the only thing she got is her husband’s neglect. And the cat disappeared when the woman sought it. Faced with the woman’s disappointment, the husband still held an apathetic attitude, even when it came to the woman’s hairstyle, clothes and other requests. At the end of this article, the woman obtained a big tortoise shell cat which was given by the landlord. The plot of this short story is simple but enlightened. And the indistinct ending has became a controversial topic in critic. 

1.1 The present study of “Cat in the Rain”

From the study of the history of Ernest Hemingway studies, his war fictions have been studied by domestic and overseas critics from different perspectives. The hot points focused on Heroism, Iceberg theory, death and symbolism. But there were some scholars who observed and appreciated these works from the female point of view. When it came to feminism, the research area was limited. In the early critic, “Cat in the Rain” was analyzed from the perspective of martial disharmony and related with Hemingway’s own marriage. And the cat symbolized the eagerness that the American wife lusted after the affection from her husband. John V. Hegelian held the supposition that “Cat in the Rain” mirrored the crisis in American marriage.  When it came to the image of Cat, John V. Hegelian didn’t interpret the underlying appreciation. Carbs Baker comprehended the ending from the positive perspective because the woman regained the cat with the landlord’s help.  But apparently the cat the woman received was not the wildcat. David Lodge consented to the opinion of John. V Hegelian and wrote “Analysis and Interpretation of the Realist Text Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain”. 

1.2 The history of Eco-feminism 

With the development of feminist criticism, some scholars recognized the connection between the nature and woman. Eco-feminism, as the product of Western social environment movement and the feminist movement, was first proposed by a French feminist named Francois d’Eaubonne in 1974 as a part of her call to women to save the planet. And she proposed an idea that “What men do to the earth is exactly the same with what they do to the women.”  So it reflected the special contact between women and nature. At the early stage, Eco-feminism contained many perspectives such as animal protection, environment protection, woman rights and Anti-war movement. This concept was developed by Ynestra King and the theory became a movement in 1980 with the Amherst conference “Women and life on Earth”.  And in the 1990s, Eco-feminism progressed a literary theory finally. It could be seen as a combination of ecologist and feminism. As a modernistic theory, it contributed another angle to ascertain the profound meaning in “Cat in the Rain”, which provided critics two dimensions. Based on this theory, critics analyzed “Cat in the Rain” from a wider vision.