Use of nature in Literature to Represent Religion - Michael Evans

In my English class we were reading a short story by Ernest Hemingway called “Cat in the Rain.” As we discussed it in class we talked about imagery and what some images represented. One of the topics that were brought up was a jet-black war monument amidst a garden of flowers in the plaza. When it is described in the story, it is raining heavily in the area and the rain is seen pounding against the flowers and the monument. The war monument, a hulk of black in the midst of colorful flowers, seemed to stand as an omen of death or lack of life in the plaza. Where everything was vibrant around it, it was just dull, black, and immobile. It was interpreted as a sign of infertility, a place where nothing could grow. We discussed in my English class, as we did in our religious Studies class, how rain was a sign of fertility, spawning new life and helping the present life survive. As it was raining and the war monument still stood as still and black as ever we should see the monument as a sign on infertility. Eventually this linked to the main character’s desire for a child that she could not have, but this was the extent of the nature and religion links.