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Good and evil in literature
Good and evil in literature
Ernest Hemingway views on abortion
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The story Good People by David Foster Wallace is similar to Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway as both stories are about the two characters in the story deciding whether or not they should get an abortion. However Good People focuses more on the religious reasons of why the two characters, Sheri Fisher and Lane A. Dean, would want to have or not have the abortion. Most of the story is from Lane's point of view as he struggles with the decision they are trying to make and the author chose to include no dialogue in the story. Because of this decision the reader is forced to come to conclusions about the story using only Lane's thoughts and opinions. At the beginning of the story the setting is described as dark, as “there had been
more storms that week, with some downed trees”, and overwhelming (Wallace 150). Does this reflect the way the characters feel about the situation they are in? If the setting is compared to Sheri and Lane's relationship the storm is when they both learned of Sheri's pregnancy, as it caused damage to their relationship, and the dark water and overwhelming nature is the stress and tension they both feel as they try to make this decision. The beginning of the story also shows that Sheri and Lane are isolated from each other. Although they are both sitting on the table, Sheri is rocking back and forth and looking at her shoes while Lane is still and looking out on the lake. Throughout the story Lane continues to try and come to terms with what he has done and the ways he believes he has sinned in terms of his religious beliefs. Although his mindset does not change dramatically, he does seem more at peace with his thoughts by the end of the story, thinking “he was not a hypocrite, just broken and split off like all men” (Wallace 154). The settings reflection on the characters moods can also be seen at the end of the story. Lane and Sheri are still feeling the stress of their decision, but now the sun has started to shine on the dark water as Sheri shares her thoughts with Lane and he decides to do what he believes is good. Although they are still not in a good situation, as life around the lake moves on, they have no choice but to continue on as well.
As seen through remarkable works of literature, characters with unstable morals and actions paired with a significant climax are essential to a great story. Many excellent works of this genre focus on the actions of these characters, which portray questionable morals and eventually lead to their own destruction. These types of characters appear in both short stories “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, being the parents in “The Veldt” and the Grandma in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. In both situations, the decisions of these characters made throughout the stories showed significant selfishness. The Grandma decided to sidetrack her whole family because she simply wanted to see a house and the
The motion picture A Few Good Men challenges the question of why Marines obey their superiors’ orders without hesitation. The film illustrates a story about two Marines, Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey charged for the murder of Private First Class William T. Santiago. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, who is known to be lackadaisical and originally considers offering a plea bargain in order to curtail Dawson’s and Downey’s sentence, finds himself fighting for the freedom of the Marines; their argument: they simply followed the orders given for a “Code Red”. The question of why people follow any order given has attracted much speculation from the world of psychology. Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, conducted an experiment in which randomly selected students were asked to deliver “shocks” to an unknown subject when he or she answered a question wrong. In his article, “The Perils of Obedience”, Milgram concludes anyone will follow an order with the proviso that it is given by an authoritative figure. Two more psychologists that have been attracted to the question of obedience are Herbert C. Kelman, a professor at Harvard University, and V. Lee Hamilton, a professor at the University of Maryland. In their piece, Kelman and Hamilton discuss the possibilities of why the soldiers of Charlie Company slaughtered innocent old men, women, and children. The Marines from the film obeyed the ordered “Code Red” because of how they were trained, the circumstances that were presented in Guantanamo Bay, and they were simply performing their job.
Who exactly is a good person and what about them makes them a good person? In David Foster Wallace’s Good People, the question of what a good person is brought up. Lane and Sherri are Christian college kids who attend the same junior college. Sherri got pregnant before marriage and decides to keep the baby, and while Lane decides to stay supportive he has lost feeling of love for his girlfriend. Two different definitions are brought up, the question is which one is the true meaning of a good person? A good person is either a person who does good deeds but doesn’t truly mean them from the inside or a person who is down to earth from the heart but may not always do good deeds.
The thought of good people brings warmth and joy to my heart. On a daily basis I would like to think that most, if not all, of the people we surround ourselves with strive to be good people. My initial thought that came to mind before I began to read David Foster Wallace’s “Good People” was that this would be a story about all the people around each other doing good for one another bringing happiness to me as a reader. The story took a huge turn as it did not talk about the good of the people, but the expectations and judgments we hold for others to be good people. My eyes and my heart opened up, as Wallace’s story unfolded, in which he used a controversial issue to make a point by tugging at the emotions of the reader. I now know that this story was not to make a statement about a very controversial issue, but to make us realize that being a good person doesn’t always mean we have to follow by the expectations or rules that have been set for us, but by being who we truly are and having an understanding for one another.
In “Hills like White Elephants” and “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway the reoccurring use of the thought of death is found in both stories. His minimalistic style of writing makes it difficult to see at first, but toward the end, the importance of understanding the impact of the characters’ thoughts of death becomes clear. The characters in both stories are completely different, but there feelings on the thought of death are very similar. In “Hills like White Elephants” the antagonist Jig and the antagonist the older waiter in “A clean, Well-Lighted Place” have similar feelings of sorrow and despair on the thought of death. On the other hand, both protagonist the American and the younger waiter both feel burdened and have a
Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” tells the tale of a man and a woman, who at first might seem to be having a normal and rather dull conversation at a train station, but it is only when you look closer into what is actually being said by the characters and find the small clues that Hemingway cleverly knit into the story, that you realize how heavy the conversation actually is. Unlike many authors, Hemingway leaves it to the reader to delve deeper into the story and decipher the situation for themselves, and a seemingly simple story can become something so much more. The woman in the story is contemplating whether to stick to the life she knows or begin a brand new chapter in her life that could change her relationship with the man forever. Sometimes one’s true intentions are not always clear.
What would literature be had every author used the same perspective for every single story? Literature would not be as well received as it currently is received. Take three American short stories, “Hills Like White Elephants,” “A Rose for Emily,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” for example. These stories, by Hemingway, Faulkner, and Gilman respectively, each utilize a different a point of view. The perspective of a story heavily influences the impact of the story on a reader and that impact varies based on the content of the story.
In Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the theme of good vs. evil unravels throughout the series of tragic events. The Grandmother’s epiphany introduces the idea of morality and the validity is left to the interpretation of the reader. By questioning the characteristics of right and wrong, morality and religion become subjective to personal reality and the idea of what makes individuals character good or bad becomes less defined.
For this assignment we were required to attend an event that had something to do with the women culture. The event that I choose to attend was called “ More than a Few Good Men: A Lecture on American Men and Violence against Women” and it was presented by Jackson Katz. And although I missed the first 30 minutes of the event, the whole topic of conversation was interesting and fascinating. The event consisted of two parts, the first one being about domestic violence and the second being about the by-standard effect as well as the way that media and movies give young boys their ideas of masculinity. All the information provided was helpful and useful when it comes to trying to understand the reason why men act in a dominant and sometimes an intimidating way towards women.
Ernest Hemmingway uses time, place, and symbolism in "Hills like White Elephants" to intensify the central dilemma in a story about a man and a woman deciding on whether to go through with an abortion. Although a literal reading of the title may not seem to have any relation to the story, the title is rich in implications. Critics suggest that "Hills" refers to the shape of a woman's stomach when pregnant, and Webster's 21st Century Dictionary defines white elephant as: "[An] awkward, useless possession." The term is also defined in Webster's as an item that is worthless to some but priceless to others. According to Victor Lindsey, the child in the story is a white elephant in the view of the man, who is trying to convince the girl to get rid of it. Hemingway hints about how the man and the woman each feel about the unborn child, but he never tells us why they have such different views on the prospect of an abortion. The man in the story, referred to as "the American," claims that the abortion is necessary because it would save their relationship, whereas the woman, Jig, has doubts as to whether or not she should have an abortion at all.
In the short story by Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants," a couple is delayed at a train station en route to Madrid and is observed in conflict over the girl's impending abortion. In his writing, Hemingway does not offer any commentary through a specific character's point of view, nor, in the storytelling, does he offer his explicit opinions on how to feel or think about the issues that emerge. The narrative seems to be purely objective, somewhat like a newspaper or journal article, and in true Hemingway form the story ends abruptly, without the couple's conflict clearly being resolved. The ambiguity of the ending has been a subject of much debate; however, the impact of what is not said in words can be gleaned through the symbolism of their surroundings. Upon examination of the setting, the couple's final choice becomes instantly apparent.
Thinking back to our childhood, we all remember hearing many kinds of fairy tales. Some of them inspired us others confused us, and most of them taught us valuable lessons. Through out centuries tales and stories have been used as a valuable tool to pass on our culture to new generations. There is a strong belief that these fairy tales mirror and influence society. All cultures interpret tales in their own unique way. They add and subtract various aspects of the tale to fit the needs of their particular society. The same tale in the United States is different from the tale told in Asia. A good example of tale evolution can be seen in one of the most famous tales ever told which is “Cinderella”. As a professor of women’s history Karol Kelley points out in her essay Pretty Woman: A Modern Cinderella “There are some 700 versions of Cinderella”.This fairy tale as many others has been changing for many years, and in recent years Cinderella has come under some criticism for its depiction of women’s roles in society.
At first glance of Carver’s “Neighbors” and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” those two short stories seem very much alike. Although both short stories share literary devices such as point of view, and characterization; however, they are different in tone.
Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is a short story about a couple contemplating on whether or not to have an abortion. The two are at a train station drinking beer and waiting for their train to come. In the story, the man wants the girl to get an abortion saying it will be an easy and quick procedure. However, the readers can tell that the girl is not too fond of the idea of getting an abortion. Throughout the story the couple tries to talk about the problem but their conversation seems to go nowhere. They go back and forth saying that they just want the other one to be happy. There is an irony in the story of these two characters as their relationship begins to “deteriorate,” compared to the “unity portrayed in the river, mountains, and fields” (Maynard). The woman begins to see the “selfishness of the man” and that is when the readers see that she has made up her mind to keep the child” (Maynard). Even though the readers have a good understanding of what each character wants, neither of them come out and say what they have decided. Once their train arrives the two part ways. No clear decision was ever made but the readers have a good idea that the couple most likely separated and the girl probably kept her baby. Hemingway stresses how important communication is in relationships through this story. The couple in the story obviously did not communicate very well, therefore, their relationship did not last. Relationships are built on communication and if a couple cannot communicate then the relationship will not last. Hemingway portrayed a couple who failed at communicating through three different ways. Location, time, and degree of relationship are all factors that affect communica...
Relationships have tend to be compared to the word perfect most of the time but in Hills Like White Elephants, the word perfect is not the word to describe the couple’s relationship in the story. The story is written by Ernest Hemingway, who right before writing this short story was having relationship problems which involved divorce because of his affairs. It seems that he has a lot to saying and can relate to this short story. The author seems to relate to the male in the story. This short shorty is based on a couple who are sitting in at a table at a train station waiting for a train to Madrid, Spain. They seem to have a topic opened up at the table that seems to not be cleared up right away because one feels different than the other. In a relationship, the couple should agree in a topic that is really serious and even though the other feels different there should be a meeting point or both of them or they should both get help in making the decision.