Cat in the Rain

by Ernest Hemingway

Cat in the Rain: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

Hemingway’s writing style in “The Cat in the Rain” is extremely minimalist. Not only is the story only four pages long, but the sentences themselves are short and curt, lacking adjectives, adverbs, and imagery. This comes across in the opening paragraph of the story, which contains sentences like, “Their room was on the second floor facing the sea,” “It was raining,” and “Water stood in pools on the gravel paths.” Rather than waxing poetic about what the rain looked like as it fell or sharing insights into how this rainy day felt to the two main characters sitting in their hotel room, Hemingway simply describes what the characters “see.”