is there any analysis on Hemingway’s Cat in the Rain?

The analysis on Hemingway’s Cat in the Rain 1. Introduction Ernest Miller Hemingway is one of the most prestigious writers in the world. The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954 was awarded to him for his proficiency in the art of narrative and the great influence he had exerted on contemporary style. The outstanding characteristics of Hemingway's work are the concise style, rich emotion, and profound thoughts. Hemingway, through his many years of writing experience, regarded literary creation as an iceberg floating on the sea, which is the iceberg principle theory. His short story Cat in the Rain is a good example of Hemingway's “iceberg principle”. Besides, the original text reflects new historicism presenting the original features of history and feminism theory which studies the image of women in literature and culture. Therefore, this essay not only adopts literary theory to analyze the original text, but also adopts translation strategies such as foreignizing and literal translation based on the relevance between translation and translator to analyze the translation text in depth, which make more readers understand Cat in the Rain. 2.The analysis on the original text The original text mainly describes the story of an American couple while traveling in Italy. The wife saw a cat curled up in a corner outside the hotel in the heavy rain and wanted to get it back. Her husband George said that he was going to help her catch the cat, but actually lay indifferently on the bed. Then the wife went downstairs to find the cat herself, but the cat had gone. She returned with a sad mood and told her husband what she wants, but end up with the rude reply. At the end of the story, the hotel owner sent the maid to bring a big tortoiseshell cat to the heroine. 2.1The new historicism in Cat in the Rain The theory of new historicism discusses the relationship between history and believes that literature is a vivid art form presenting the original features of history. It alsw emphasizes the interactive relationship between literary reconstruction and historical reality, which is historicity of texts and textuality of history. Cat in the Rain is a text which can illustrate the new historicism. 2.1.1Historicity of texts in Cat in the Rain Cat in the rain is a short story about the lost generation, which is included in Hemingway's collection of short stories In Our Time. It describes the current situation of the young after the war who has no pursuit or goal of life. George, the hero of Cat in the Rain, is a typical representative of the “lost generation” in the 20th century. He wandered around Europe aimlessly, while other people went to Europe, especially Italy, usually with the purpose of searching for inspiration or visiting the war memorial. He wandered from place to place with his wife, didn't know where to stay and what to do, so he lost his mind. This was the true portrayal of the lost youth life after the war in the 1920s. The lost generation refers not only to the young writers who have the similar mind and experienced World War I in the 20th century, but also to the young Americans who lived in the 1920s. Most of these young people have experienced the war and suffered from the pain brought by the war. Their dreams are in conflict with the reality of American society, so they lose their life goals and spiritual sustenance, and escape from reality through abnormal behaviours such as drinking or smoking. These behaviours are a manifestation of the aftermath of World War I. In Cat in the Rain, the Italian's visit to the war monument indicates that the time in the novel is the 1920s, which is the era of the lost generation. The historical reality also has been reflected in the abnormal relationship between the men and women, for instance, which is what the “lost generation” has in common: lack of faith due to loss. Besides, the feminist movement after the World War I had a great influence on Hemingway's creation. He thought rationally about the world of coexistence of two sexes. The female image in Cat in the Rain is the embodiment of Hemingway's exploration of the role of women in the family or society and the relationship between women and men. The abnormal relationship between the husband and wife is a record of the unequal treatment of women under the restriction of social and cultural conditions at that time, which reflects the historicity of texts in the social and cultural restrictions. 2.1.2 Textuality of history in Cat in the Rain The textuality of history is reflected in the era that Hemingway lived, which is the lost generation. The lost generation is the inscription of Hemingway's first novel the Sun also Rises, later became a term in the history of American literature, referring to some young writers who had similar experiences in the 1920s. Most of them experienced the World War I, dissatisfied with the disintegration of cultural tradition and morality, but helpless. They were disappointed with the reality of the American society after the war, and gradually separated from the values advocated by the American society on the spiritual level. Most of Hemingway's novels focus on a group of lost young Americans who are like him, living in European countries. George, the hero of Cat in the Rain, experienced World War I. The war left a great shadow for such people as George and caused them great physical and psychological damage. They feel empty, melancholy, pessimistic and despairing. They hate the result of war. At the beginning of the novel, the park, the war memorial and the empty square opposite the hotel are depicted, which not only create a cold and desolate atmosphere, but also the text presentation of the time and the spiritual state of the people after the war. They truly record the war reality experienced by the lost generation and the war-weariness after the war. 2.2 The feminism in Cat in the Rain The image of the tough guy in Hemingway's work is deeply rooted in people’s minds. Some critics think he is a writer who is full of masculinity and hostile to women in the novel. However, Cat in the Rain is created from the perspective of women, and is closely related to the social reality, which is called feminism. After World War I, with the development of the feminist movement, the status of women has been significantly improved, and the image and code of conduct are also different than before, which has a significant impact on Hemingway. Therefore, the female images in his works are no longer small or absent, but they have the right to pursue self-fulfilment to a certain extent. The author narrates from the perspective of the third person. Although there is no description of the heroine's name in the novel, the different titles are given to the heroine in different environments, which also reflects the awakening of the heroine's awareness of women's rights in the patriarchal society at that time. For example, at the beginning of the novel, the heroine is called “the American wife”, which to some extent reflects its subordinate status. In other words, the heroine has no independent identity at the beginning, and her identity is always related to her husband, or her role in the relationships. Only when she began to search for the cat and experienced a brief awakening of female self-consciousness, did she no longer appear as “the American wife”, but as “the American girl”, becoming the independent existence. In cat in the rain, the wife constructed a dialogue with her husband actively, but her husband showed indifference most of the time. She felt a strong sense of identity when she saw the lonely cat crouching under the table, so she decided to catch the cat. When she went downstairs and saw the male owner of the hotel, her inner activities directly showed her favour for the owner, for instance, “ The wife liked him. She liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel- keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands”, these “she liked” are the embodiment of women's freedom and rights. In the dialogue between the husband and wife, the wife brought out the topic actively, and the center of the topic is always around the cat she wants. From “ ‘I'm going down and get that kitty’.” to “ ‘I wanted it so much’.”, she has been caring about cats. When faced her husband's indifference, she dared to complain, “ ‘Anyway, I want a cat, I want a cat. I want a cat now. If can't have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat’.”, which boldly expresses her love and desire for the cat. She is a new female image who dares to pursue her individuality, and likes change as well as has her own hobbies. However, “George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the window”, which also reflects his wife's behaviour of saving cats breaks the shackles of traditional gender roles. Hemingway's description of this behaviour on the one hand reveals that the old model of gender role is the cultural burden that binds people's lives, on the other hand, he expressed his silent sympathy for women. To some extent, women's image and status have been improved and raised, and they have the right to voice. At the end of the story, someone knocked on the door, and the cat miraculously appeared in front of the woman. The appearance of the cat made the woman got what she wanted, so she seemed to have some courage and determination to start a new lifelife. However, Hemingway intentionally turned his focus on the husband instead of describing the wife's reaction, readers will never know whether the cat is the one the heroine saw at the window. The uncertainty implies that the cat in the heroine's subconsciousness is more important than the real cat, which reveals the cat in the novel is actually the substitute of what the heroine lacks, and all the obsessions and fantasies about the cat of the heroine express her desire for a new and independent female identity. The image of a woman who dares to break the tradition and pursue new things is the result of Hemingway's influence by the feminist movement and the realistic text of the social reality of the feminist movement. However, the feminist movement at that time was not mature, so the woman who wanted a cat finally failed to get rid of the sick marriage dilemma. Her dream was destined to go to disillusionment in the abnormal relationship with her husband, not to escape the doomed tragic fate. 3.The analysis on the translation text The traditional linguistics points out that translation is the process of equivalent transformation, so the translator is essentially a machine, while the literary school points out that translation is the process of literary creation and understands the translator as the creator. From the 1980s to the 1990s, the deconstructionists like Benjamin put forward the view of “translation is equal to the original”, and pointed out that “translation is the afterlife of the original”, which has made outstanding contributions to the promotion of the status of the translator and the translation, and has an important impact on the later theories of post colonialism and cannibalism. From then on, the translator has got rid of the shackles of machine and became a real operator. 3.1The relevance between translation and translator in Cat in the Rain 3.1.1The leading role of translators in the translation process Translator plays a leading role in the translation process, which determines the choice of translation methods and the application of translation strategies. When translators translate literary works, they need to conduct in-depth research and analysis, fully understand the original ideas, and analyze and classify the writing style of the original works, from the perspective of language art, styles and artistic characteristics, to determine the appropriate starting point for translation. During the translation process, the task of the translator is adhering to the transformation from author to translator to author. The translator in the whole process is in a pivotal position, supporting the entire link of translation and determining the quality of translation. From the analysis of the reader's relationship, the translator is a direct participant in the translation process and has a decisive effect on the relationship between the various parties such as the author and the client, while from a functional perspective, the translator is the reader of the original text, and also the creator of the original text. Therefore, different translators produce different works. It is the translator's understanding and translation that makes the original text more widely understood and favoured by the public. The translator's interpretation of the original text has transformed the language. From this we can know that in the translation process, the translator often highlights the core elements, and the decisive role in the whole process cannot be underestimated. 3.1.2 The strategies adopted in the translation text When translating The Cat in the Rain, Cao Yong adopted a literal translation and alienation strategy, which is to restore the pure language in the original and makes the novel more vivid. To be more specific, the translation of the title “Cat in the Rain” was worked out after repeated deliberation. The translator used four corresponding words “雨中的猫” for translation, which is not only in line with the Chinese word formation method, but also consistent with the original text and the styles of foreignizing and literal translation. As for translating “The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed”, the translator translated “the foot of the bed” into “床脚” through literal translation principle, while some scholars believe that it should be translated into “床尾” which align with Chinese language habits. According to Schleiermacher, the foreignizing translation plays an important role in enriching the national language, and the translated text enriches the content as well as innovates the expression. As for another sentence “She held a big tortoise-shell cat pressed tight against her and swung down against her body.”, the translator translated “ big tortoise-shell” into “一只大玳瑁猫” which is not consistent with the expression of cat and the description of colour in Chinese. From the English-Chinese Dictionary, the word is explained as “a mottled or brown cat”. With the combination of explanation in the dictionary and the expression in target language, it can be translated into “一只大花猫” to reach more ideal effect. “big tortoise-shell” is the core of the novel and closely related to the understanding of the target readers, so the translator must fully understand the background of Hemingway ’s life and his living conditions, or understand the relevant background consciously, in order to compare “big tortoise-shell cat” with “kitty” to highlight the main idea of the text. From analysis in the perspective of Hemingway's life background and historical humanities, “big tortoise-shell cat” can be translated as “狸猫” (raccoon cat) which also means “unfortunate” in Chinese. The American wife finally got the “big tortoise-shell cat” with an implicit meaning, indicating that her and her husband's marital life was not happy, which not only reflects the level of the translator but also is coincided with the main idea of the article. 3.2The process of translator’s adaptation and selection In 2004, Hu G. introduced Darwin’s adaptation and selection theory into the field of translation studies, and conducted theoretical analysis and philosophical research on this basis to seek adaptation and selection phenomena in the translation process. Hu constructed a system with the translator as a core for the first time, especially the redefinition of translation, that is, translation is the process of translator’s adaptation and selection of needs and environment. 3.2.1 The translator’s adaptation and selection of needs For the translator, striving to adapt to the needs of individual survival for achieving the realization of personal value is not only its source of power in the translation process, but also an essential form of the translator's vitality. When translators are engaged in translation activities, the main task for them is to make efforts to adapt to the environment of translation and show their ability. Translation is not only a hobby for translators, but also a way of survival. It is a grand road that reflects the value of one's life. Translators have a natural pursuit, which is to gain more readers' recognition and produce social and economic benefits. Therefore, in a broad sense, translation is to meet the needs of readers, so as to gain market share to realize the value of the translator. 3.2.2 The translator’s adaptation and selection of environment The environment here represents the background of the story in the original text, the language form, humanistic features, design relationship and reader-writer interactive relationship. When the translator enters the environment to make adaptive selections, it not only can be translated based on the core of the original author, but also can be based on the core the of original text or the translation. Therefore, in the translation process, the translator should analyze the text based on social values, language expressions and practical meanings. The final result is to achieve level equivalence, cultural equivalence and social meaning equivalence, which are the basic requirements for translation, and Cao Yong's translation adopts the foreignizing translation strategy, which achieves the equivalence between the translation and the original text well. 3.3 The translator's restraint mechanism, helplessness to the cultural transfer, and the translator's subjective intervention The Cat in the Rain is Hemingway's famous short story, the full text is a thousand words, but it spreads endless social information. For translators, they must have rich knowledge of social and cultural information, but many translators are helpless during the translation process. Translators are not static in the process of translation, and will be affected and restricted by many mechanisms, which cannot achieve the desired effect on the translation of the original text in the end. In addition, translators will inevitably be influenced by the cultural elements of the original text when translating, and this influence is hard to avoid. For example, in the process of translating Hemingway's Cat in the Rain, the translator must do all the work in advance to fully understand the author's life and social background. Hemingway conceived this novel in 1923, because at that time, he not only had disagreements with his wife Hadley from time to time, but also had been influenced by French Rapal. In 1924, a cat of his friend was sent to Hemingway, which made him and his wife very happy. A few weeks later, Hemingway wrote this famous novel Cat in the Rain, which described the close relationship between women and cats. After understanding the above historical background, the translator has a better grasp of the overall ideas in the translation process, but it is helpless that it is not reflected in the translation. Besides, the translator is powerless in the face of cultural factors, but there exist exceptions. For instance, when translating Eugene Onegin in 1964, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov translated the text into 228 pages in total, while the rest were notes. He also put forward the point that the length of the notes can exceed the translation, which will make it easier for readers to understand the entire content and connotation of the work, and his translation of Evgeny Onegin has also achieved academic peak, which embodies the translator's subjective intervention and is also the final result of the translator's choice to adapt to the translation environment. From analysis of Hemingway's Cat in the Rain based on the perspective of translation adaptation selection theory, it can be seen that the translator occupies a dominant position in the translation process. Translators must understand the background of the work creation and the author's living environment in detail, and read and scrutinize the original text repeatedly, use their own language and the original language of the text to convert, and achieve the transmission of cultural information of the translation. Finally, the translation for readers is presented. The translation is the translator's interpretation of the author's original text. The translator is the reader of the original text and the subject of the translation process. The translator will choose many methods and strategies in the process of translation. Whether it is foreignizing or literal translation, the translation is the final result of the translator ’s adaptation to the translation environment. Therefore, the translator is the master of the translation, and the process of translation is also the process that the translator adapts in the translation environment. 4. Conclusion Although Cat in the Rain is a short story, the plot and expression are relatively straightforward, everything in the novel stands for exceptional meaning. Among them, the cat, weather, hero, heroin, and scenery are regarded as the main images of the novel. For instance, the weather represents the United States before and after World War I, the description of the hero is a representative of the lost generation, and the description of the female consciousness of the heroine is influenced by the feminist movement. Therefore, based on the new historicism, both the original text and the translated text reflect the textuality of history and the historicity of texts. It also can be seen from the analysis of the translation that the translator plays a dominant role in the translation process.Whether it is foreignizing or literal translation, the translation is the final result of the translator ’s adaptation to the translation environment. In a sense, the translator is a researcher of the original text and the author. The task of the translator is to use literature as a pure language carrier to find complementary ideographic methods in the original work, and bring the original work to a higher and more pure language atmosphere, so as to achieve a complete fusion of the original language text and the translated text. References: 1)Hemingway, E. (1986). Cat in the Rain , 91-94, In our time: Stories. New York: Collier. 2)Lodge, D. (1980). Analysis and Interpretation of the Realist Text: A Pluralistic Approach to Ernest Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain". Poetics Today, 1(4), 5-22. doi:10.2307/1771885 3)Mikics, D. (2007). A new handbook of literary terms. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. 4)Benjamin, W. (1921/2000). The Task of the Translator. Translated by Harry Zohn. In L. Venuti (ed.) The Translation studies reader. London & New York. 11-22.  5)Hu, G. (2004). Fan yi shi ying xuan ze lun =: An approach to translation as adaptation and selection. Wuhan Shi: Hubei jiao yu chu ban she. 6)Nabokov, V. 1955. Problems of Translation: “Onegin” in English. In L. Venuti (ed.) The Translation studies reader. London & New York. 71-83. 7)Tyler, Liza. (2002).Women and Men in Conversation in“Cat in the Rain”and “The Sea Change”. in Broer, L. R., & Holland, G. (ed.) Hemingway and Women: Female Critics and the Female Voice. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.70-80 8)Giles, P. (2018). American World Literature. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. 9)Kumari, R. (2018). The Role of Gender and Warfare in the Fiction of Ernest Hemingway. International Journal of Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 7, Issue 5, 57-60