Ernest Hemingway's Construction Of Women In American Literature

The text “Letting the air into a relationship: Metaphorical Abortion in ‘Hills Like White Elephants” by Wyche David aims at analyzing and synthesizing the short story by Hemingway “Hills like White”. The analysis would provide new knowledge to readers of the short story or provide the readers with a new point of view of analyzing it. The subject of the text is to present his ideas on the short story and well as critique other critics who had previously critiqued it. The story illustrates broken relationships of Hemingway and the pain it caused him, which led him to write the short story. The whole text is therefore an analysis and synthesis of the short story written by Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" relies on symbolism to carry the theme of either choosing to live selfishly and dealing with the results, or choosing a more difficult and selfless path and reveling in the rewards. The symbolic materials and the symbolic characters aid the reader's understanding of the subtle theme of this story. The hills symbolize two different decisions that the pregnant girl in our story is faced with. Both hills are completely opposite of each other, and each "hill" or decision has a consequence that is just as different as the appearance of the hills.

In Hemingway’s “Hills like white elephants” there are very subtle details that are noticed only when you dissect the reading and look past the text that is written on the page. We are introduced to both the “American” and the “Girl” early on in the story. As the story progresses on you begin to notice how different each person is and how that lack of knowledge can be almost child- like in nature. The age of either person is never mentioned, although when reading the story you get a strong sense that the “American” is significantly older than his female counterpart. Her inexperience is first noticed when she begins to ask about alcoholic beverages and how they compare to the taste of licorice (Hemingway 591).

“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story of a pair of couples having an argument with an operation of whether the girl should do the abortion during their travel. The story shows the audience two different views and attitudes between two different genders--men and women. By using ethos, pathos,and logos, Hemingway gives people a social message that men were short of responsibility and encouragement to get into a family, and they were supposed change this situation by understanding and care more about women. Nowadays, as the time changed, the social message people get from the story change as well-- women are taught to be more independent.

Most men side with the men, and most women side with women. In the short story Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway explores a power dynamic through a situation that is still controversial today. While this short story explores the decision-making process between a girl and a man, the controversy arises: whose decision is it? This power struggle for a decision that, arguably, mainly affects the life of the girl. While the man may choose to wish to be a part of the child’s life, the pregnancy and abortion is solely affecting the girl, not the man. Hemingway strips the girl of any authority and knowledge by differing between girl and woman, yet by closely examining the interactions between the girl and the man, it is the girl remains authoritative over the decision of a possible abortion.

The final theme derived from this story is how men and women relate to each other. Most of Hemingway’s stories are masculine in nature, but “Hills Like White Elephants” shows the woman’s point of view as the more rational of the two (Short Stories for Students 158). The man is shown as being selfish and irresponsible by starting this relationship and then lacking the support Jig needs (Hamid 78). The American sees life as being very straightforward and rational, while Jig is considered to be romantic and living in an emotional world (Beacham 8). Clearly, these themes are still applicable in modern societies concerning this issue of abortion.

In Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway uses controlled concise diction to develop a tension-filled tone, which characterizes the woman as a pushover to the man, revealing how society gives in to lust, blinding them from the love they desire.

In the readings about men and women, there were two stories that stuck out for me. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and "Shiloh," by Bobbie Ann Mason. To me these stories had many peculiar similarities. I felt that there were so comparable that there seemed to be a true connection between these two novels.

Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.

In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, the American and Jig are like the tracks at the train station, they can never meet. While Jig represents fertility, life and continuity, the American represents sterility, dryness and death. Unfortunately, Jig depends emotionally on the American – as many women depended on their male counterparts in the 1940s – and lacks the autonomy and willpower required to openly affirm herself in their relationship. As they struggle to find common ground, the very discussion that can bring them together only tears them apart. The differences in each character – in their personality, means of

Both “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” center around two women who are repressed by their lives’ circumstances. However, outside of their feelings, their situations could not be more different. Miss Emily Grierson is trapped in a life of solitude, despondency, and desperation. The girl, or “Jig”, is equally as desperate, but her repression is not born of loneliness or restraint—it is the child of her freedom. Repression comes in several forms, but it will suffocate and consume you.

Both Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums portray oppressed female characters in the early 1900s. In Hemingway’s short, Jig is oppressed by her lover known only as “The American,” whereas, the main character in The Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen, feels the weight of oppression from society (male dominated) as a whole. Although the driving force of the two women’s subjugation varies slightly, their emotional responses to such are what differentiate the two.

He is a leader, she is bossy; he is persevering, she is relentless; he is assertive, she is aggressive⸺the double-standards women face are crippling. In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, amidst all the bull-fighting, phallic symbols and masculinity, females struggle against the suffocating force of subordination. Georgette’s faces criticism of her appearance, Lady Brett Ashley endures constant objectification, and Frances Clyne is villainized for committing actions that are deemed acceptable if a man is responsible for them. In particular, Frances fails to meet the chauvinistic rules of the patriarchy and consequently, falls victim to socially ostracization. In the novel, Hemingway uses the malicious perceptions surrounding Frances to suggest the rigid double-standards which slander women who seek respect and power.

    Ernest Hemingway has often been accused of misogyny in his treatment of female characters (and, perhaps, in his treatment of women in his own life). "It is not fashionable these days to praise the work of Ernest Hemingway," says Frederick Busch. "His women too often seem to be projections of male needfulness" (1). Many of his stories are seen as prototypical bildungsroman stories--stories, usually, of young men coming of age. There are few, if any, stories in the canon of women coming of age, however, and Hemingway is not the first to suffer the wrath of feminist critics. But is this wrath justified?

“Life isn’t hard to manage when you have nothing to lose” This was Catharine Barkley’ case. She perfectly describes how women’s role changed throughout the novel, and how powerful she became. She represented women in that time. I will analyze women’s role thought the 19th hundred and throughout the book. In a Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway recreates himself through the character Frederic Henry, he was an ambulance driver on the Italian front during World War I. Hemingway based the novel on his own previous experience. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and (Lockridge, 189-191). Like Frederic, he served at the Italian army front, where he was wounded, and was sent to the hospital, where he met Agnes Von Kurowsky, she was a nurse from the United States. Catherine Barkley’s character is based on her. They shared the quality of being fascinated with being an individual, and not ruled by any person, especially a man. In AFTA, Hemingway explores the gender emergence of the new feminine ideal.