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Compare And Contrast Hemingway And Separating

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“Separating” by John Updike is a short story. The story begins with a man from Boston named Richard Maple. Towards the end of the school year, Richard Maple and his wife, Joan, are deciding when to tell their four children about the two getting a divorce. Richard wants to tell them at dinner while Joan wants to tell them individually. They decide to do it Joan’s way. At dinner the family is having lobster and champagne and Richard begins to start crying. Everyone ignores it at first but then the second-youngest John asks why Richard is crying. Joan tells the truth and the children become angry that they didn’t tell them earlier. Joan tells Richard he has to tell their other son Dickie the news since he was at a concert. Dickie takes the news …show more content…

Both stories deal with relationships ending. The two stories differ in how clear of a division there is in the relationship. In “Hills Like White Elephants” the couple is very much divided and the reader immediately recognizes this when the girl says, “That's all we do, isn't it—look at things and try new drinks?"” (Hemingway 230). In “Separating”, we are not able to really understand why Richard and Joan are separating, “We do get along, that’s the trouble” (Updike …show more content…

The girl is unsure about getting the operation and can’t even decide wether the hills look like white elephants. "They look like white elephants," and a few minutes later saying "They don't really look like white elephants.” (Hemingway 229 & 230). Richard Maple also is indecisive about the relationship and doesn’t remember why he is separating with Joan to begin with. The two characters differ in that the girl tries to hold onto the hope that the relationship will end while Richard is so obsessed in his thoughts of ending it that he forgets the reason behind the

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