Hills Like White Elephants
"Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway is an interesting read. In the story there's the American man and a girl named Jig. It seems to me that they are in a relationship but I did not realize this until they were at the bar. They were at the bar having drinks but the conversation seemed random and out of place. In the story he stated “It’s not really an operation at all”, “It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.” He was talking about the abortion.
Jig kept mentioning the elephant she saw in the mountains to me it meant she was wanting to talk about the abortion. As in "The elephant in the room" which means something obvious that no one desires to talk about like the abortion. The American man makes it seem like he's right about what he's saying. By saying it's an easy operation and that they will be fine. But in reality to her it's a big decision to make and it's hard for her to think about. So him saying its fine that everything will be good makes her upset since he doesn't seem to care at all.
During the conversation he basically says that getting rid of the kid would them both happy. He then states ‘Of course it does. But I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want anyone else." He only wants Jig and he's basically saying he doesn't want the baby at all. It seems to me he's playing with her emotions and trying to make her feel desired and wanting her to forget about the baby. At the end she says she's fine but she never said they’re fine as in "WE" which leaves me thinking and wanting to know what happened.
I agree, the American does not seem to care, to talk about reality and the decision they had to make. An abortion is in fact a very delicate thing, and even though, the physical aspect is viewed as for her, it is very much both their situation. There is a saying that goes, "it takes two to tango". Certain activities cannot take place alone. It really left me thinking, what they ended up doing at end too.
ReplyDeleteGood blog post.
ReplyDeleteThe American man does not express much emotion to this abortion that ends up being the "elephant in the room". I like how you said, "It seems to me he's playing with her emotions and trying to make her feel desired and wanting her to forget about the baby," because it does seem very narrow and focused from his side throughout this story. He keeps saying he only wants her. He already made up his mind and it was probably made up the entire time. It leaves us all to speculate as we do not find out what exactly happens in the end as Jig just hints that SHE is fine - not that THEY are fine.