GROUP 15:

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Mai

Phạm Thị Diệu Quỳnh
 Outline
Type of Literature 01

Background 02

Author 03

Analysis & Comment 04

 TYPE OF
LITERATURE

AMERICAN
MODERNISM
 AMERICAN MODERNISM

1. Definition
American modernism, much like the modernism
movement in general, is a trend of philosophical thought
arising from the widespread changes in culture and
society in the age of modernity.
 AMERICAN MODERNISM

2. Time
American modernist literature was a dominant trend in
American literature between World War I and World War II
 AMERICAN MODERNISM

3. Theme
-Influenced by the first World War, many American modernist writers explored the
psychological wounds and spiritual scars of the war experience.
-The economic crisis in America at the beginning of the 1930s also left a mark on
literature, such as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
-A related issue is the loss of self and need for self-definition, as workers faded into
the background of city life, unnoticed cogs within a machine yearning for self-
definition. (Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby)
-Madness and its manifestations seems to be another favorite modernist theme, as
seen in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, Hemingway's The Battler and
Faulkner's That Evening Sun
-According to the book Hemingway's Cats
-Hemingway wrote the story as a tribute to his
wife Hadley
-When she became pregnant he wrote "Cat in the
Rain", apparently based on an incident in Rapallo
(where they visited Ezra Pound in 1923)

BACKGROUND
 Plot summary
- An American couple stood at a hotel near which was a
war monument
- The wife was looking through the window and she saw
a cat which was in the rain. The wife wanted to take the
cat, that's why she left a room.
- As she went downstairs, she made the housekeeper.
She liked him.
- When she went out, she understood that the cat wasn't
already there. Thus she returned to the hotel.
- She had a conversation with George, her husband and
showed her interest in changing her lifestyle.
- At the end of a story, the maid of the hotel brought a
big cat to the wife from the parts of the housekeeper.
AUTHOR

ERNEST MILLER HEMINGWAY

(July 21,1899-July 2, 1961)
 ERNEST MILLER HEMINGWAY
HIS LITERARY WORKS
Ernest Miller Nicknaming himself
Hemingway was an “Papa” while still in his
American novelist, 20s, he was part of the
short-story writer and 1920s expatriate
journalist. community in Paris
known as “the Lost
Generation

In 1953, he received
In 1954, he received
the Pulitzer Prize for
the Nobel Prize in
The Old Man and the
Literature
Sea
 ERNEST MILLER HEMINGWAY
HIS LITERARY WORKS
He provided descriptions
His stylistic influence on of action to capture
American writers has scenes , made the
been enormous reading of the text as
close to the actual
experience as possible
His writing style :
characterized by
economy and His protagonists : stoic
understatement , males who exhibit an
seemed simple and ideal described as “
childlike grace under pressure "
 THE ICEBERG THEORY
(THE THRY OF OMISSION)
• The Iceberg Theory (also known as the "theory of omission") is a style of writing
coined by American writer Ernest Hemingway.
• If a writer of prose knows enough of 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 ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above
water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes
hollow places in his writing
• Ernest Hemingway's "iceberg" theory is his strategy of fiction writing in which most
of the story is hidden, much like an iceberg underneath the ocean.
• Hemingway developed the style as a result of being a journalist, a profession
which requires conciseness due to space' restraints in printed newspapers.
ANALYSIS & COMMENTS

The use of imagery Plot

Characters Symbols

Portfolio Presentation
The use of imagery

The way in which the weather is described: this is a quotation

from the short story from the cat in the rain
“There were big palms and green benches in a public
garden. In a good weather there was always an artist with
his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the
bright colors of the hotel facing the sea.”
-> This evokes the impression of “happy” times.
The use of imagery

Then Hemingway describes an atmosphere that is wet,

bleak, and lonely. He states,
“The motor cars were gone from the square by the war
monument. Across the square the doorway of the cafe a
waiter stood looking out at the empty square.”
=> This evokes a feeling of loneliness or sadness.
The use of imagery

Color imagery :
The opening paragraphs discuss all the green outside of
Kitty's windows, the green palm trees, the shiny green
benches and table. and the public garden. All of the bright
greens such as the growth and diversity of life just outside of
Kitty's reach. While she is bored and feels lifeless inside the
hotel and inside her marriage, life moves on outside.
The use of imagery

Rain imagery
The story also contains many examples of rain imagery and
the rain's effects are the setting and characters. While the rain
causes a war monument to glisten and empowers the sea, it
also forces humans realize their reality and think of how to
change their life manners.
CHARACTERS
• Main character: The
American woman

• Minor characters: George

(her husband) and the
hotel- keeper
- Name & age : The American
+ not given
 Enhances the impression that she woman
mostly fullfills the role of a modern
wife .
 An American wife is a stereotype or
deflection of a typical American wife
in the 20s OUTER
- Appearance :
+ short boyish hair : " clipped close
like a boy's "
 fashionable , attractive
+ " American girl ”
 Young
• unhappy , bored , and lonely :
+ “ stood at the window looking out ”
The American
+ " looking out of the window ”
• caring and compassionate
woman
+ wants to rescue a cat in the rain :
“ I'm going down to get that kitty . " , " I
wanted it so much . " ...
+ fell pity for the cat in the rain :
INNER
" It isn't any fun to be a poor kitty out in
the rain . “
• always tried to satisfy her wishes desires
and natural needs
+ “want to eat at a table with my own silver
and I want candles….brush my hair out…
want a kitty and …some new clothes”
+ “Anyway, I want a cat. I want a cat”
 GEORGE (THE HUSBAND)

Love reading A bit caring Self - Dismissive

book involved

+ " reading , lying + offered to go outside + " reading , lying + " Oh , shut up
propped up ... ” and get the cat : propped up ... and get something
+ " reading again ” “ I'll do it , ' her husband + " reading again ” to read . "
. offered from the bed . " + " George was not
+ reminded his wife listening . He was
" don't get wet " reading his book . ”
. .
 THE HOTEL-KEEPER
OUTER INNER
CHARACTERATION CHARACTERATION
- tall , old , dignified Italian man - Chivalrous and polite :
: LOREM IPSUM + " The wife went downstairs and
+ " an old man and very tall ” DOLOR SIT AMET, the hotel owner stood up and
+ " old , heavy face and big LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET,
CU USU AGAM INTEGRE IMPEDIT. bowed to her as she passed the
hands ” office . "
-> masculine traits + “ Si , si , Signora , brutto tempo .
-> a type of masculinity that
Power
It is very bad weather . ”
the American woman is Presentation
- Sensitive and attentive :
attracted to , which she cannot Get a modern PowerPoint
Presentation that is beautifully + anticipating her needs
find in her husband. designed. I hope and I believe
that this Template will your Time, + “ the hotel - keeper had sent her
. Money and Reputation. You can
simply impress your audience
” an umbrella .
and add a unique zing and + sending up the maid to the
appeal to your Presentations.
couple's room with a cat for the
wife
 
PLOT
 PLOT
1 2 3 4

Exposition: the Conflict: it is the Climax: it is Resolution: she

author depicts the time when the wife the debate announced her
two characters of a becomes obsessed with a wish to have a cat
story there were with a cat and husband “if I can't have long
only two Americans intends to take it hair or any fun I can
stopping at a hotel inside the room have a cat
SYMBOL
1. THE
LITTLE CAT
IN THE RAIN
The American wife desire
to have a baby
 2. RAIN

Stands for life difficulties

and troubles
 REFERENCE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_modernism
https://www.mypspa.org/article/more/the-iceberg-theory

https://www.tonyenglish.vn/vi/view/ernest-hemingways-ic
eberg-theory.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_in_the_Rain
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING