Reading Hemingway with George Saunders Part 4

I’m working through George Saunders Story Club “bit at a time” short story readings, this post is my notes on reading part four of the story below, see original post from George here.

CAT IN THE RAIN (Part 4)  

With the maid holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path until she was under their window. The table was there, washed bright green in the rain, but the cat was gone. She was suddenly disappointed. The maid looked up at her.

“Ha perduto qualque cosa, Signora?”

“There was a cat,” said the American girl.

“A cat?”

“Si, il gatto.”

“A cat?” the maid laughed. “A cat in the rain?”

“Yes,” she said, “under the table.” Then, “Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty.”

When she talked English the maid’s face tightened.

“Come, Signora,” she said. “We must get back inside. You will be wet.”

“I suppose so,” said the American girl.

They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed outside to close the umbrella. As the American girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She went on up the stairs. She opened the door of the room. George was on the bed, reading.

Reader questions to consider:

1. How has your understanding of (and feelings about) the wife changed?

2. What do you think the story is about?

3. What are you expecting to happen next?

As the story has gone one I’ve gone from see the American Wife as a somewhat tragic figure trapped inside by the rain and maybe her suffocating marriage.  As the story when on she went from the American Wife looking out a window, to the Wife taking initiative and setting off to go outside and rescue the cat.  As she goes downstairs and sees the hotel owner I see her as an elitist who derives pleasure from the attention and service of those she sees as below her.

At the start of this part I feel validated as the maid goes out into the rain, presumably getting wet herself, while holding the umbrella over the Wife and looking up at her sudden disappointment.  Here the Wife becomes the American girl, which makes me think she is acting young and entitled, upset that the cat outside in the rain wasn’t huddling there waiting for her to rescue her.  The maid’s responses make me feel she has some resentment or disrespect towerds the American girl, laughing at the idea of a cat outside in the rain, and her face tightening as the American girl talks English, possibly at satisfying her desire for a kitty by taking one from the square.

The last graf of this part pulls together a lot of these threads for me, her journey to save the cat is over without gratification.  She retreats back the way she came, leaving the maid in the rain to clean up after her failed journey.  Her sense of superiority or eliteness has now been diminished.  Now the old man is the ‘padrone’ (i.e. owner or master), and his bow reinforces her feeling small, but also reminds her of her importance.  While she wasn’t able to get what she wanted (the kitty), the recognition of her elevated status makes her feel important again, supremely important.

At the end of this part the American girl continues her retreat up the stairs and into her room, where her hustand, now named as George, is still motionless, reading on the bed (what is he reading?), where she had left him.  Given she’s coming back empty handed, feeling small, but buoyed some by her sense of importance, I see her getting what she wants or needs from George.  She may ask for his sympathy at her failed endeavor, expressing her desire for a kitty, and lamenting her failed rescue.  She could take her failure out on him, making him feel small and unimportant to enlarge herself once again.  She may try to turn George against the hotel, padrone, and maid by blaming them for her failure.  She could also take her position back at the window, looking out at the square and sea in the rain, pining for something to rescue and love.