Isolation in Hills Like White Elephants and Girl

Isolation; the feeling of complete loneliness does not always occur when one is alone, but this desperate feeling that there is no way out can happen even if once is not physically isolated. Emotionally though, one can feel utterly alone and abandoned. Simply, what happens is that one becomes so caught up in mainstream society that they lose an ability to interact successfully with others. Eventually, they will begin to feel that they have become so insignificant that nothing the do will be able to pull themselves away from the barren abyss. More or less this is what happens for the main female characters in both Hills Like White Elephants by Earnest Hemingway, and Girl by Jamaica Kincaid. Both characters find themselves isolated as they struggle to support the social mask that acts as a double-edged sword in that it protects ones emotional well being but also isolates they wearer from those around them.

In Kincaid’s Girl, the story is how to become a proper ‘lady’ while avoiding the perilous pitfalls of a common slut. The narrator struggles to keep up to all the rules that are being recited off for her as if there were a shopping list and she soon feels trapped in this very ridged gender role. However, by taking on this generic role as a female, the narrator is also creating a new identity for herself to the extent that she will act a different way around everyone. In the lecturing of the narrator’s guide, the young girl is taught multiple ways ‘to smile to those [she] doesn’t like…those [she] doesn’t like at all… and those [she] likes completely” (Kincaid, 280). Not being able to fully express one’s individuality can lead that person to feel alone and isolated as they lose their meaning of self. Sadly, if one does not know wh...

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... from the intense feeling of isolation they must be willing to make themselves vulnerable to make an emotional impact and connection to another person. By doing so we break down the barriers that have been implemented by society and begin to interact with one another on a more personal level and it becomes more intimate immediately. If we want to keep any bit of self-identity we must be willing to shelve the mask and persona every once in a while so that we don not forget who and what we are deep inside.

Works Cited

Gwynn, R.S., and Wanda Campbell, Eds. "Girl." Fiction: A Pocket Anthology. By Jamaica Kincaid. 2nd Edition. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 2005. 279-80. Print.

Gwynn, R.S., and Wanda Campbell, Eds. "Hills Like White Elephants." Fiction: A Pocket Anthology. By Earnest Hemingway. 2nd Edition. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 2005. 124-28. Print.