Cat in the Rain

Much like many other short stories by Hemingway, “Cat in the Rain” is written in simple, clear language. While the beginning of the story features a comprehensive description of the larger setting, the rest of the story employs specific images and brief dialogue. “Cat in the Rain” employs Hemingway’s “theory of omission” (or “iceberg effect”), which Hemingway described this way:

If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water (quoted in McPhee, John. “Omission: Choosing What to Leave Out.” New Yorker, 7 Sept. 2015).

In a 1958 interview, he told writer George Plimpton, “Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg” (quoted in McPhee). This style of writing requires readers to recognize metaphors and symbols to draw meaning from the text.