Please post your comments or arguments to the following assertion and my defense of the same, by Tuesday.
The girl in Hemingway’s short story Hills like White Elephants is unable to safeguard her integrity as an individual because she ‘s enslaved by her feelings of inadequacy and her credulous disinclination for self preservation puts her in the man’s power more than is healthy to foster a loving relationship.
Her inability to heed her better judgment regarding her relationship is reason enough to suppose that she is bound by her feelings for her manipulative lover at the risk of her own well being in the long run. She discounts her intuitive recognition that something is definitely more than amiss which is evident in the scene where she looks into the distance at the hills as she tries one drink after another to ignore the true nature of her relationship with this man who says everything will be just fine after the abortion. She sees his inability to understand that her issue is not just terminating her pregnancy but also the implications of his detached attitude. She doubts the sincerity of his affection and she asks him “Doesn’t it mean anything to you? We could get along” (543) Her newfound knowledge that she probably doesn’t mean very much to him is disconcerting to her. Even so, she seems careful not to vex him with a sincere conversation about their relationship and is unable to break free because she’s dependent on him, more emotionally and habitually than in any other way. She ignores her inner voice and compromises her integrity in a bid to satisfy a peripheral need thereby plunging further into an abyss of selflessness
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I feel like the girl in this short story does not care about anything but her boyfriend. Rather then sticking up for what she believes in she will go along with what the man wants. While I was reading the short story I felt that the girl did not want to have an abortion, but decided to do it because the man wants one. Also I felt that because she did not want to lose the man she would do anything that the man asked her to do. This is not a very good thing because this gives the man complete control over the girl. To me it seems like the man knows that he has control over the girl which is why he has the power to have her get an abortion even if she doesnt want it. Also because of this I think that after the girl has the abortion I don't think that their relationship will last very long after that.
ReplyDelete~Nicole Treschitta~
(I think this is what you wanted us to do! I wasn't exactly sure.)
Thank you Nicole for your comments.
ReplyDeleteActually, this piece of writing is to serve as an example of thesis statement and body paragraph for Paper 1. Post your questions, disagreement or comments on this piece. If you people are busy with your drafts for tomorrow's class feel free to post on this piece sometime later this week.
i agree that the girl in the story "Hills Like White Elephants" has no since of self. when i first read the story i saw not so much that the man was manipulative, but that he seemed apathetic. that he did not care for the situation but did care for the girl. more that he saw the aborotion as nothing. after reading how you have explained the text, it is clear theat the man does have a manipulative streak.
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