Kincaid And Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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Controlled Behavior “Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior” (Cherry). Positive reinforcement which is praising a person for doing something good verses negative reinforcement which is an unpleasant remark a punishment. B.F. Skinner did an experiment on a rat, the rat was taught to push two buttons, one to receive food and the other was a light electric shock. The rat tried both buttons and realized which button was good and which one was bad. This experiment goes to show that upon the rewards and punishment system one can learn their rights from their wrongs through a series of lessons. Kincaid and Hemingway both use operant conditioning to show human behavior under stimulus control. First, in the fiction story “Girl” by Kincaid a mother is teaching her young daughter how to be a lady. The mother reinforces that the …show more content…

The woman does not know if she wants to get an abortion because she is frightened by it. While the man insists on telling her to do so because he wants them to continue with their life and not have to think about a baby. Although he mentions she does not have to do it if she does not want to. The girl attempts to change the subject by talking about how the hills look like white elephants to try to get the man to think about something else other than her procedure.
“One aspect of the girl 's sensitive, sensuous response to life is her fertile imagination. For example, she imagines that the hills have the skin of white elephants. “They look like white elephants,” she says to the man. “I 've never seen one,” he replies. “No, you wouldn 't have,” she says, realizing that he is incapable of sharing her fancy”

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