Women In The Soldier's Home By Ernest Hemingway

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

Through the precise use of diction between the woman (“jig”) and the man, Hemingway reveals how a lack of knowing someone can lead to emotional dismay. Concise diction in a relationship means, conversation only scratches the surface and the two “lovers” don’t truly know about the other person’s emotions. The story is full of short, one-line phrases of conversation between the couple about trivial things. They converse about the “lovely hills” and the “simple operation,” yet they never ask each other about their feelings. The lack of in depth communication of opinions creates a tension filled atmosphere that just keeps building up and up as the story continues. The “simple operation,” an abortion, is seen by the couple as the issue they need to resolve, however, the man, who can’t handle the responsibility, instead of talking it through with his “lover” chooses to manipulate her. He tries to convince jig, who is easily pushed-over as she is stuck by lust and will do anything to keep the relationship together. She doesn’t care to sacrifice her happiness for his, rather she fears that if she doesn’t go through with the operation, he will leave her, she is indecisive and relies on the man to make many decisions. The man deceives

Imagine coming back home after being away for three years and trying to adapt to a new environment. It's almost like not being able to sleep in a hotel bed because you are used to your one at home. For Krebs’ it is the other way around. In the short story “Soldier's Home” by author Ernest Hemingway, Harold Krebs the main character is having trouble getting used to his hometown and the life it follows.. He has been at war for several years and is trying to get used to his home. Krebs joined the marines and went to war in 1917 and came back to the United States in 1919. The war ended in 1918 and two other kids from his town came back a year earlier than him. Because of this no one one wanted to hear any war stories and it was hard for Krebs. One of the most important themes that is represented throughout the story is adaptation. Krebs has to adapt to his home back in Oklahoma after fighting in the war for years. In the course of the short story, “Soldier’s Home”, Ernest Hemingway uses literary elements of setting and conflict to represent one of the themes, adaptation.

This is an essay on the short story “Soldier’s Home” by Hemingway. Will the life of a soldier ever be the same after returning from war? Many generations of young adults have gone from their homes with tranquil settings to experience war and come home to a different world. Many have witnessed the devastations and atrocities that occur with war. Harold Krebs, a young man from a small town with a loving family is no different from those before him and those to follow. The anguish of what war is however cannot dispel the thoughts and memories of what many young men come home to face in the real world. Many have trouble coping in the new world known as home.

Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist. One of his most famous and controversial pieces “Hills Like White Elephants” is frequently discussed among authors and readers. In this short story there is a girl and a American man sitting at a train station. The girls name is Jig, we come to find out that she is pregnant and that the two are disusing whether to keep the baby or not. They question each other to see if the options would ruin their relationship. Hemingway portrays things to serve as double meanings. Two of the main subtopics and questions formed from this paper is whether or not Jig has the baby. And whether of not the tense relationship between the two lasts. Among the many authors who have their own opinion on what these things mean is, timothy Obrien, who wrote, “Allusion, Word Play, and the Central Conflict in Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants”. In his paper he focuses on certain phrases to conclude his belief that Jig does get and abortion and that the relationship between Jig and the American does not last. A professor at Illinois state university by the name of Stanley Renner, author of “Moving to the Girls Side of “Hills Like White Elephants””, does not think the relationship lasts. Although the relationship does not last he believes that the baby does. David Wyche, author of “Letting the Air Into a Relationship: Metaphorical Abortion in “Hills Like White Elephants””, he is not

In Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway tells a simple story about a couple who is arguing about an abortion. Through the woman’s dialogue, the readers grasp that she does not want to get the operation done, even though she never states that directly. As the man tries to convince her, she, obviously, becomes more and more frustrated with him. For example the woman says, “I feel fine. There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine”(478). From this dialogue, the reader can acknowledge that the woman by no means is going to give into the man’s persuasion and, ultimately, the final decision will be hers. However, the man does not seem to care that the operation could potentially harm the woman. For example, he describes the abortion, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all”(476). The reader grasps that the man is selfish, does not put himself in the woman’s shoes, and

This is why he could not love anymore; the mere thought of it nauseated him. He could not assimilate back into living a regular life with the thoughts of regular men. In seeing so much that should be out of the ordinary, he never wanted to deal with common human issues again, not to mention consequences. Krebs relationship with his sister is probably his best with anyone in the house. This is most likely due to the fact that she is around 11 years old and is infatuated with her older brother. When she talks about telling her friends where she learned to pitch a ball, she says “I tell them all you’re my beau. Aren’t you my beau, Hare?”(139). This type of talk does not bother Krebs in this situation, unlike the girls whom he refuses to talk to in his town. His sister is pre-pubescent, so she has unlikely developed the body of a woman and also, she shows improbable signs of having sexual urges by asking him if she is his girl and if he will “love [her] always”(140). By observing the problems Krebs has with his own family members after the war, one can understand why his problems communicating in the outside world, with strangers, exists.

   Ernest Hemingway has been greatly criticized for a supposed hatred of women that some feel is evident in his writings. One of the primary books that critics believe shows this misogynistic attitude is A Farewell To Arms. It is counterproductive to interpret the book using such a narrow focus because the author is dealing with much more profound themes. Hemingway is not concerned with the theme of gender equality, but rather with the greater themes of the inherent struggle of life and the inevitability of death.

Also, Hemingway was considered to be “vitally concerned with re-establishing what he felt were the proper rules of man and women in their relationship to each other” (Fiedler, 305). This is shown in his portrayal of women in