The short stories “Cat in the Rain” and “Araby” share common similarities and differences. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain”, the pitfalls of marriage manifest themselves during an American couple’s vacation on Italy’s coast. “Araby” by James Joyce reveals the complicated and sinuous journey of a young boy who fancies the returned equal amount of love and affection that he possesses for a neighborhood girl. As if the female roles in these literary works have lost their sense of what the true meaning of life is, we find them both desiring material goods, but the different approaches and ways in which the males react is what makes these stories so different. As Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain” opens we learn that it is a rainy day and the American couple is confined inside their hotel room that overlooks the ocean. While the wife’s husband George is so captivated in a book, the wife gazes out of a nearby window and notices a cat crouched underneath one of the tables in the hotel’s public garden. She then informs George that she wishes to go out and rescue it. Appearing bothered by his wife’s uninteresting statement, George utters a simply, “don’t get wet” (Hemingway). After enduring what seemed like an unsuccessful attempt in rescuing the cat, the American wife is in low spirits as she returns to her room. Looking in the mirror, she begins criticizing her appearance and voicing how she wants “to have a kitty to sit on [her] lap, [...] eat at a table with [her] own …show more content…
In both stories the female roles wish to acquire some sort of material item. Whereas, in one story the male role shows little effort or concern in making his wife’s wishes and desires become a reality. The other displays a young man willing to endure many hardships in order to answer the requests of a girl who is basically a stranger to