Kagen Lewis 10.20.2011 Task 1 paper 1 Thesis: Jig has the power in her relationship with the American, so she is a sympathetic character. First, jig has the power in her relationship because she brings up the topics for the conversations that they have. Early in the story when they’re drinking, Jig says the hills “look like white elephants,” as a way of introducing her pregnancy (2). After they get their drinks, Jig also asks if they can “try” the drink on the beaded curtain (2). When Jig notices that the hills “look like white elephants,” she mentions it to the American, therefore starting the conversation with him.
Hills Like White Elephants In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants”, the story illustrates a young woman named Jig and an American man challenged with the decision of abortion. Throughout the sequence of the story it is apparent that the man is persuading Jig to undergo the procedure. The apprehensive discussion the two are having suggests that they are avoiding the underlying issue at hand. In addition, the setting of the story establishes the stigma involved with the procedure, as Jig left her town and traveled to Spain. Hemingway’s use of symbolism in the dialogue and setting helps reveal the difficult matter through suggestion without the actual term abortion being mentioned.
“He doesn’t know about this one or the one before.” Celia talking to Minny in the bathroom, after having a miscarriage. She really wants a kid by Mister Johnny, “I wanted this baby to look just like Johnny.” letting out a big sigh while still talking to Minny. She feels like that’s the only way Johnny will love her and keep her. These two are liberal in their thinking. They don’t necessarily believe nor do what the other ladies think its right.
In comparing both “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” you find both stories contain a woman repressed by her circumstances. From an emotional standpoint, you could say they are the same, but in reality their situations couldn’t be more different. In “A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson leads a life of conformity, loneliness, and desperation; while in “Hill like White Elephants,” “Jig”, may too be desperate, but her repression is not caused from loneliness like miss Grierson, but rather by her questionable freedom. Although repression takes on different forms, it is all the same and can eventually leave you consumed and breathless. In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily Grierson lives a secluded, and turmoil filled life which has revolved around inexplicable loneliness characterized by the harsh abandonment of death being that of her fathers.
Critic Carley Rees Bogard contends that Edna gets pulled into a “web of romantic illusion” and that too much focus is put on the sexual encounters and not her efforts to become herself. On the other hand, for Edna, sexuality is how true freedom presents itself. With complete disregard to the stereotype of “mother-woman,” Edna fights against the demands of 1899 that regulate her to be a controlled and dutiful housewife (Chopin 8). In The Awakening, Kate Chopin symbolically traces a 19th century woman’s steps toward enlightenment to an ultimate choice. Chopin created one of the most memorable feminist icons of the feminist movements before we knew what being a feminist really entailed.
There are many different points throughout this story where the girl continues to second guess the operation. In the beginning of the story, the girl talks about how the hills off in the distance look like white elephants although the country is brown and dry. At this point, the girl is referring to the “white elephants” as her baby, which the man wants her to abort. Later in the story, the girl states that maybe the hills don’t look like elephants anymore, which simply symbolizes that she is thinking about not having the abortion. The white elephants are a major symbol in this story, symbolizing something that is unwanted.
Story of an Hour Gender Analysis It is not often that an author is able to magnify the human perception of a society as well as Kate Chopin did in “The Story of the Hour”. In the span of an hour of time, with just over one thousand words and in spite of societal constraints, Chopin explores the abstract idea of female identity. She is able to demonstrate that the roles in which women were placed hindered their life experiences. Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” brings the reader back to the years of strict gender roles in the late 1800s. It shows the inner battle that women were forced to battle into repression.
Kate’s mother was a “woman of great beauty, intelligence and personal magnetism” (Skaggs 1). The deaths of her father, grandfather and great-grandfather did not give her to opportunity to experience women being dominated by men and perhaps this shaped her future writing. Kate Chopin published more than 100 short stories set in Louisiana and focused on the lives of intelligent women whose thoughts and actions were unconventional for the time. Her characters were vibrant and intelligent and were trying to “satisfy three basic but often conflicting human drives that Chopin believes go together to make up a person’s identity-the drive for a feeling of belonging, for love and for a sense of individual sovereignty” (Skaggs 1). Two such stories are “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm.” Both stories take place in a time when women were still considered the legal property of their husbands.
Merely Teasing Charlotte Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” both demonstrate how society, at the turn of the century, seemed to make women feel enclosed or trapped. The narrator in “Yellow Wallpaper” and the main character in Chopin’s story, Louise Mallard share many of the same desires and characteristics. Their desire to get out and be independent eventually gets them punished. In both stories, it is clear that the narrator or character is a female. From the way the narrator talks in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” describing her husband and house and the decorations, it is obvious she is a female.
Releasing Your Spirit In the late nineteenth century, the institution of marriage required that the woman play a less significant role in the union. In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” and Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles”, both of the husbands limit the potential of their wives. Given the similar time periods, both stories share analogous ideas about marriage, but still maintain their distinct and unique patterns of events. In both of the stories, the women are contained in their homes and are expected to live the role of women during this period. In “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard feels that “there will be no powerful will bending hers” anymore, so unlike previously in her life she is able to freely choose how she wishes to live (Chopin 16).