Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway And The Babysitter By Robert Coover

The American literary canon presents a one sided view of women, due to the dominance of male authors. Classic American books generally present images of women in a male-centered viewpoint, creating a biased representation of women in literature. In “Feminist Literary Criticism: From Anti-Patriarchy to Decadence,” Anne Barbeau Gardiner states that the American literary canon is “strikingly narrow…prepared by white men whose judgment was prejudiced and whose language was full of gendered meanings.” (Gardiner 395). Gardiner

There are countless times that women have been shown or portrayed in a negative light, whether it be in books, movies, or anything media related. This can basically be summed up by the word “stereotype” which has been used many times in the past years. Sadly, women have a set of stereotypes that many people believe, that really portrays them in a negative way. Ernest Hemingway portrays a certain set of stereotypes of women as well, through many of his stories including “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Cat in the Rain”. Hemingway portrays women as being unfit to face the realities of the real world. He suggests this by showing women as overly emotional, self absorbed, and unable to make competent decisions whether it be under pressure, or just in general.

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

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.

According to a quote by The Atlantic, America is still a “patriarchal community” (Cohen 1). The majority of humans live in a society influenced by men and have little to no understanding of a matriarchal society because it is not around. For centuries, women have fought for equality and it is a reoccuring theme in literature. This theme can show how people critique and analyze many works of art. Countless people can read a text and depict it differently, from the beginning to end. This depends on what critical lens they view it from, allowing people to comprehend the different ways literature is written. There is many different critical lens to choose from. An example of one of the critical lens is the feminist viewpoint. The feminist theory, analyzes the nature of gender equality. This approach shows how women can compare to men. This can be done politically, socially, or economically. In William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, he can be seen going against the feminist theory. This lens will affect Hamlet’s two main, female characters Gertrude and Ophelia. While viewing Hamlet through the feminist theory lens, many male characters can be seen as being, aggressively, dominant; creating the women to have many stereotypes.

Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.

The presence of stereotypes within literature is no surprise when taking a look at society and it’s reoccurring standards at any given time. Across the world, from the biblical era to present day, gender roles have evolved with the times yet maintained their foundations as a form of categorization and predetermined expectations. With these preset values, women are seen as objects to own and to be shown off while men are portrayed as insensitive proprietors. With a closer look at the beginning of literature, it’s renovations evident in the recent past, and how it has evolved into its relatively current state, it can be seen that as the world has tremendously evolved, society’s values have seemingly remained grounded to superficially inescapable

    Throughout the years, different forms of literature  have generally stereotyped women and shown them as weaker than men. They have played archetypes such as the mother or the lover, which have traits less desirable than the roles men would take. These archetypes tend to limit their personalities and they become characters that are solely there for inconveniencing the hero and creating obstacles. Throughout history many people have made efforts to change these archetypes and make them more desirable. Even though archetypes for women have been shown as weak, it has changed throughout the years.

In many literary works women are constantly oppressed by their husbands but always show respect toward them. For instance, men in literature usually play the stereotypical role of a husband that is dangerously violent toward their wives, possessive and controlling over his wife, the financial provider, and the obligation of having children. These gender stereotypes can be demonstrated by these three different literary works: A Streetcar named Desire, Desiree’s Baby, and As I lay dying. Although many literary works have been more liberal over the decades, commonly held notions of what it means to be a man usually harms women in many aspects.

In every society each gender’s behavioral response is often a reflection of the societal influences that have been instilled since birth. In every society each gender is subjected to certain roles. Males having to suppress their emotions while women are able to be emotional beings. Women being shunned for exhibiting characteristics of the opposite sex. Although, we live in a society that harps on individuality and self-expression, it is clear that this only applies when individuals do not feel inferior. Additionally, self-expression is only situational and accepted based off of certain agendas. In the following story, Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning, we are able to analyze how a male reacts to feeling inferior to a woman. In The Yellow Wallpaper, which is written by Charlotte Perkins, we are able to analyze how her husband’s lack of understanding and inability to communicate with his wife ultimately leads to her insanity. In each of these stories, gender roles are being depicted in a negative and positive way. Through the character’s actions were able to learn how society views each gender in the time in which the story takes place.

As long as sexism exists within our society, it will exist within our literature. Depicting women as the submissive and therefore passive gender has been an age old occurrence within cultures. This is reflected in many aspects of societies from pop culture to history. A key contributor to the continuation of this is the unreliable, biased and sometimes outright manipulative narrative of these texts. This narrative, subjective in it’s art, not only affects how female roles play out in a plot but also heavily influence how the audience views the power dynamic between genders. Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, James K. Baxter’s He Waiata Mo Te Kare, and Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer all female characters have been passive victims or objects to their circumstance.

What exactly does the phrase white elephants mean? According to Merriam Webster white elephant is “An object no longer of value to its owner but, of value to others” (Merriam Webster). In other words, the phrase white elephant is an object that is not worth anything and keeping it is very expensive or a burden. In my opinion, the phrase “white elephant” means useless because white elephants are beautiful. Also, white elephants can be worth something but are useless because they are difficult to care for and require a lot of care to keep. However, the phrase “white elephant” is very significant to Hemingway’s story “Hills Like White Elephants” because the title is called White Elephants. In addition, of the title, the phrase is very significant

In the hills like white elephants by Ernest Hemingway there is a young girl who is about to under go a "simple operation" Hemingway illustrates the girl as a character who is helpless and indecisive about what's going to happen next. the woman's tone in the story makes her appear as if she is being manipulative into having the operation. "I know you wouldn't mind it, jig it's really not anything. it's just to let the air in," it's what the man said. The girl shows that she is confused because of the decision making. The man makes the girl feel stressed and she tells him, “would you please please please please please please stop talking” (Hemingway 478). The woman's role in the decision making in the story appears to be somewhat independent;

Ernest Hemmingway is known for his barren and minimal stories; thus, his work requires one to think deeply about what is happening. In turn, this often leads to a greater understanding of his stories. One cannot just skim over Hemmingway’s literature, they have to decipher the movement and underlying meaning behind his words, basically, one can think of it like this—a silent movie does not have words, inversely, Hemmingway’s stories had words, but did not illustrate thoughts and movement. This was particularly true for his short story—Hills Like White Elephants, which surrounded a couple and their short conversation while waiting for a train. They conversed over drinks, which foretold the stressful nature of their conversation. The man in the

“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood share a gender-oriented theme. They both show women struggling to attain equality against their male partners. This theme is depicted through the use of symbolism, point of view and plot conflict.