In Hills like White Elephant by Ernest Hemmingway, is about a man and a girl who are currently in a Spanish speaking country. They were waiting for the express next to the railway station. During their time there, they drink beer and two licorice-tasting anis drink, with more beer as they spoke on a simple operation that the girl will be having. From their conversation, we see there was a lot of tension, and the man is urging her to have the operation and she kind of doesn’t want to. Since he continues to speak over and over about the operation, it made her feel like she had to go through with it in order to please him.
As I read this story, it just points out that a lot of men or society hold women back. They try to tell women what they can and can’t do whether it’s with their body, their job, their relationship with others, etc. One of the biggest thing’s society tries to tell women is whether they can have abortions or not. The choice over when and whether to have children is central to a woman's independence and ability to determine her future. But even in the story, the girl did not want to go through with the operation and have her child, but the man wanted her to abort and was treating her like a child. This is unacceptable and society needs to continue to improve itself
YES, BUT CONSIDER WHAT THE CHILD REPRESENTS, AND HOW THE POSSIBILITY OF A CHILD CAUSES JIG TO REEVALUATE THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND REVEAL DEEP DIFFERENCES IN VALUES; NOTICE CONTRASTING IMAGES. WHAT WOULD A CHILD PROVIDE THAT HAS BEEN MISSING? YOU NOTICE AN INTERESTING IRONY HERE--JIG BEING TREATED LIKE A "CHILD"--WHO IS THE MORE MATURE OF THE TWO? HOW SO? MOST OF THE STORY IS --MOST OF THE OBSERVATIONS--ARE FOCUSED THROUGH JIG'S POINT OF VIEW. WHAT IS SHE STRUGGLING WITH? WHERE IS SHE HEADED, IMAGINATIVELY AND EMOTIONALLY, AND DO DETAILS, AS THE STORY DEVELOPS, SUGGEST SHE WILL GET THERE? OR IS THERE A "SHADOW" OF DOUBT?
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