In the short stories, “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver, and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, the employed settings, protagonists, and conflicts create a common yet distinct storyline between the characters of incompatible existence. The male roles in each story play the victim in their personal belief. During the plot of “Hills Like White Elephants” the female protagonist has inner conflict of actually wanting to follow through with an accidental pregnancy, but is pressureed by her husband/boyfriend’s selfish decision of wanting an abortion performed on her. The male role in “Popular Mechanics” was not loyal to his wife, and when the wife snapped back he did not take it well and argument broke out over their young baby.
The main characters’ conflict over not wanting the same things in life is the root of the women’s disillusionment. The theme is furthered by the complication of the antagonist manipulation of the Jig’s feelings for him. Similar to Cisneros’s written work, Hemingway uses the narrative point of view to illuminate the growing disillusionment the women feels about not being able to have everything if she terminates the pregnancy. Hemingway leads the audience to this conclusion when the protagonist states “no, we can’t it isn’t ours anymore… Once they take it away, you never get it back” when referring to her disappointment that the antagonist will not change his mind and they can no longer have everything they ever wanted
“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple, the American and Jig, who contemplate whether or not to have an abortion. The premise of the story seems simple enough, but the outcome is highly debated. Critics argue that the baby was kept by the couple ( Renner ) and others claim the baby was aborted.( Fletcher ) Others have even simplified the story, claiming that the issue was not resolved because the couple was drunk by the end of the story. ( Sipiora ) Although the conclusion is in questions many have agreed with the idea that the couples relationship would be changed and would end prematurely. ( Wyche ) Dialogue is the main technique in conveying this argument but we can only understand the complexity of Hemingway’s work by looking at the story as a whole. By looking at the many symbols, intrinsically and
Conflict is an important part of any short story. The short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding,” contains three major conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself. In this essay, I intend to explain, prove, and analyze these three struggles.
Boyle and Hemingway use the same three elements of fiction to tell the story; both stories are written about pregnancy, abortion, and manipulation; on the other hand, they have their difference because their main characters differ in maturity. One wonder about up to what degree is abortion considered to be a crime. Both couple considered the same crime, although China and Jeremy’s actions are unthinkable to the eyes of the reader.
In the short story Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemmingway's characters situation is greatly a product of the social standards for men and women of the time around the 1930s. Their problems which come into play other than the topic of the abortion, such as their relationship, their nationalities, and their financial situation all help to create that feeling of helpless indecision and inevitability that are apparent throughout the story. The style of writing that is used leaves much of the meaning of the story hidden and an understanding of the relationships between men and women of the era can lead to a deeper understanding of the story.
In “The Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, the theme of abortion is illustrated by the clash of a male and female relationship and the symbolic meanings of the Middle East. While in Spain the American and the girl are torn between one decision: whether to have an abortion or to have a baby.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
Ernest Hemingway wrote a challenging short story about a couple that faces an awful issue. He sets his story, “Hills Like White Elephants” on a hot day at a train station, which is actually a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid for the two main characters. They have to then decide where to go, whether or not to go with each other and/or to continue their relationship. The difference between the white hills and barren valley emphasizes the division between life and death, which comes to the choice Jig faces between having the baby and going through with the abortion. She seems very caught up between the two issues she has because she is very indecisive on what she wants to do.
Analysis of Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway In “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway relies on symbolism to convey the theme of abortion. The symbolic material objects, as well as the strong symbolic characters, aid the reader’s understanding of the underlying theme. The material objects that Hemingway uses to convey the theme are beer, the good and bad hillsides, and a railroad station between two tracks. The beer represents the couple’s, “the American” and “the girl’s”, routine activities they do together.
In the “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, the pregnant girl, Jig, that drinks alcohol tells her boyfriend, American, that she is going to aborts the fetus. In a sense she just tells him this to get him to shut up because he is nagging at her to get an abortion. Jig and the American, her boyfriend talks about her having an operation and he emphasizes how much he cares for her and how much he loves her. The man tells Jig that the best thing she could do is have the operation. Jig wants to drink different types of alcoholic beverages and have a baby too. She has not come to reality that she is hurting the fetus. The man knows she is hurting the fetus by drinking alcohol that is why he wants her to have the operation to have
In “Good People” by David Foster Wallace and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” two young couples are faced with an unplanned pregnancy. Sheri Fisher may be sympathetic because Lane Dean Jr. gives her little input in a decision within their discussions, he is unsure as to whether or not he loves her, and because Sheri has made big plans for her life ahead before the unplanned pregnancy. I contend that Jig deserves more sympathy because the American is persistent in his persuasion toward the operation, his love is unjustified, and because Jig has not made plans for her life with or without the child.
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.
In the short story, “Hills like White Elephants”, by Ernest Hemingway, is based on determination to abort a child. Hemingway introduced the readers to Jig a naïve girl, who lacks self-confidence and an American man who is self-indulgence. Jig and her partner made an adult decision to conceive a child, but are not capable of keeping the unborn infant. Jig is in a position of contemplation, where she has to decide her own seed over infatuated love because she does not want her decision to affect their relationship. The man she has unconditionally love for does not condone to her pregnancy. The American man specifies the abortion as a “simple operation”. He tries to persuade Jig into the operation, but does not realize life will not remain the same after the surgery is complete. Hemingway helps readers visualize the situation of abortion by comparing Jig pregnancy to the scenery and fictitious objects.
In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway uses dialogue, euphemism, and symbolism to characterize his two main characters, the woman and the man.
When a woman gets pregnant, she and her partner make a serious decision whether they should give birth to the unborn child or abort it. However, sometimes every couple can have a different outlook about giving birth or aborting because every male and female has his or her ways of thinking. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” the author, Ernest Hemingway tells a story of an American man and his girlfriend, Jig, who have a disagreement in the train station on the subject of whether to keep the unborn child or to abort. However, the author uses binary opposition of life and death to portray the polemic argument a couple encounters regarding abortion. As a symbol for the binary opposition of life and death, he represents the couple’s expressions, feelings, and the description of nature.