Jig Code Hero

In the short story "Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway we were presented a man and his girlfriend. They order a couple drinks as they wait for a train. As the story continues, more details of what the couple is discussing unfold. Although it is never actually said we learn that the couple is talking about whether to have an abortion. "It's really an awful simple operation, Jig."(42) It's is also

Both short stories, “Good People” by David Foster Wallace and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, deal with the dilemma of abortion. An American in “Hills Like White Elephants” wanted his girlfriend Jig to have an abortion. Likewise, a boy named Lane and his girlfriend Sheri in “Good People” had an abortion scheduled. Jig and Sheri interacted with their partners differently, and both were distressed, however, due to religious and moral reasons, Sheri did not go through with the abortion while Jig did.

The short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, talk about a young couple and their relationship issue about abortion. Even though, the story happened in a short period of time, but it tells more than just a story. The woman named Jig, where the man only called as “ a man” or “ The American.” Although the relationship between them is complicated, but it is clearly that they are not married. However, they continued their relationship which came to result that Jig became pregnant. The couple love to travel and stop in many differents cities before moving on to the next. Their last stop was somewhere in Spain and that was the place where they had to make decisions either they continue their relationship with the child or

“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.

“Jig” is a young, modern woman who is faced with the decision of prolonging her freedom and the stability of her relationship or accepting motherhood and the responsibility that comes with it. It is not to say that motherhood is a prison; it is that motherhood would be the death of everything she loved, mainly travelling, and the very stability of her relationship with her lover, “the American”. “The American” says, “‘That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.’” (Hemingway 115) which unequivocally shows that the center of conflict inside of their relationship is the presumed pregnancy.

Women and men have rarely ever been able to wholeheartedly agree upon something, especially something as significant as an unwanted pregnancy. “Hills Like White Elephants” centers around an unwanted pregnancy and how a young couple is talking about it and handing it. While the mention of pregnancy or abortion is never actually said, it can be inferred through their conversations and simple clues Hemingway includes such as, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig” (Hemingway) (Link). The man in this relationship, the American, continues to reassure the woman, Jig, that the “operation” is simple and tons of people have it done. He also continues to repeat “how simple” it is. Jig

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 the story, "Hills like White Elephants" written by Ernest Hemingway, the main character Jig faces a life changing event, abortion. The struggles with the complications of abortion concern and desire Jig to want to keep the baby. Bringing a new life into the world is a long time commitment and it is something Jig feels she can treasure forever. However, her companion attempted to persuade her in another direction, to proceed with the abortion. As naïve as he is, he feels his persuasion can overcome Jig's desires. Jig is a sarcastic yet reserved woman, who desires to bring a new life into the world, even if her companion does not approve; she knows what is best.

As humans, we tend to rely on others to guide us in choosing “right” decisions. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway tells a story of an American man with a girl, named Jig, having a conversation about whether or not Jig should undergo this “operation,” which we could assume is abortion. Jig looks to the man to tell her what she should do and what would happen afterwards, basically looking for a “right” decision. The girl is torn between listening to the man, who pushes her to have an abortion, or separating from the man, to instead, keep the baby. Hemingway uses setting and symbolism to interpret the girl’s struggle with abortion.

“Hills Like White Elephants” displays the differences in how a man and a woman may view pregnancy and abortion. Jig, a woman, sees pregnancy as a beautiful aspect in life. Hemingway uses symbolism in the couple’s conversation to imply the woman’s pregnancy. The woman refers to the nearby hills on the train platform as elephants; “They look like white elephants”. She compares the hills to her own situation, pregnancy; “They’re lovely hills. They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.”

According to author Frederica Mathewes-Green, “No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.” The debate over abortion is an ardent and polarizing issue as there are those who believe that all humans including those unborn should have a right to life and on the other side of the spectrum are those that believe it should be a woman’s right to choose whether she wants an abortion or not. In Gwendolyn Brooks’, “The Mother”, is a recollection of a mother’s inner conflicts as she laments over the guilt of having had an abortion and the future she never gave her would be child. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, the relationship between two people comes into question as there is a dispute between the man and woman over whether or not the woman should have the abortion. Through Brooks’ poem “The Mother”, we’re able to understand Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” as it pertains to the difficult choices a woman has to make towards abortion through juxtaposition between her reality and the child’s possible life, religious pressure, and the sensitivity of discussing the issue.

Relationships can be difficult when two people have an opposing stance on a controversial topic such as abortion. Men, in their self-interest, perceive this option as an easy way out, in which they can have all the pleasure and none of the consequences. However, for a woman an abortion causes both physical and emotional pain which a man could never understand. Thus, making this one of the utmost difficult issues a girl may need to face in her life. In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” there are two Americans traveling in Spain. The setting of the scene is a bar located near the train station where the man and the girl discuss this life altering operation, as they await the arrival of the train to Madrid. Throughout the story the man is persuasive, as he attempts to convince the girl to have the operation, while at the same time, the girl expresses her reluctance and remains unconvinced that an abortion is the answer to their problems. Abortion remains as controversial today as it was when Ernest Hemingway wrote “Hills Like White Elephants”. Although Hemingway never used the word abortion in his story, he found ways to evoke emotions of sympathy for the girl and disdain for the man through his creative use of symbolism, setting, and characters in the short story.

When a woman gets pregnant, she and her partner make a serious decision whether they should give birth to the unborn child or abort it. However, sometimes every couple can have a different outlook about giving birth or aborting because every male and female has his or her ways of thinking. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” the author, Ernest Hemingway tells a story of an American man and his girlfriend, Jig, who have a disagreement in the train station on the subject of whether to keep the unborn child or to abort. However, the author uses binary opposition of life and death to portray the polemic argument a couple encounters regarding abortion. As a symbol for the binary opposition of life and death, he represents the couple’s expressions,

The empowerment and the continual push for equal status for women has become widely popular and successful in recent history. Women have stepped out of traditional roles of the housewife, the mother and the submissive doormat to more assertive natures. Many controversial issues surround women’s crusade of freedoms including the widely debated right to choose what she does with her body, referring to an abortion. In 1927 Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story titled, “Hills Like White Elephants” that expressed a feminist movement focusing on this issue. Through the character’s development and ability to come to her own decision despite her boyfriend’s constant pressure suggests a shift towards a powerful feminist theme in a society dominated by men. The story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” reflects how men and women are compared with power and dominance regarding their stereotypical behavior in relation to gender norms; however, this story portrays how a woman steps out of the expectations and takes a stance for what she wants.

In “Hills Like White Elephants”, and “Good People” Ernest Hemingway and David Foster Wallace identify the political and moral problems of abortion and how it effects on loving affairs. Even though the characters in their story share similar behaviors, shown by the dominant males promoting the operation to remove an unborn child, the females who value even though they face some difficulties of child rearing, as well as the two couples’ refusal to discuss conflicts with each other, both authors have different conclusions resulting from the sharp differences in setting, diction, and role of religion; Hemingway indicates love is bare and dull as well as presented by woman’s submissive role to the male’s prerogative while Wallace