“The Cat in the Rain” is a short story in the Modernist literary genre. Modernist literature emerged in the 20th century as writers became disillusioned with the modern, industrialized world around them—plagued, as it was, by inequality and war—and decided to publish books that captured this sense of alienation. While much Modernist literature focuses on the lives of poor and working-class people directly affected by class stratification, some authors like Hemingway also investigated the ways that middle-class people experienced alienation as well.
This comes across well in “The Cat in the Rain”—despite the fact that the American couple at the center of the story has enough money to travel to Europe for vacation, they still are not happy. George and his wife are alienated from the Italians around them (as they have not lived the effects of World War I the way that Europeans have) and are also alienated from each other (as seen in the way the wife longs for companionship with a cat, since she cannot find this kind of connection with George).
The ways in which Hemingway seeks to realistically capture the experience of Americans traveling in post-war Europe also makes “The Cat in the Rain” an example of Realism. Rather than romanticizing or glamorizing a couple’s adventurous travels in Europe, he shows an isolated couple stuck inside on a rainy day, frustrated with each other and their circumstances.
