Hills Like White Elephants
This week's story has a push and pull tug-of-war aspect between Jig and the man. The story plays out on a train station where a couple is waiting for the train to their next destination. The station is between two rails traveling in different directions. This symbolism signals that the characters seem to be wanting to travel in two different life directions. The girl seems to want to move towards a more stable family life and the man wants to continue in his adolescent like adventures. It's evident they are of a significant age difference. The man seems to be more worldly knowing the local language. The girl seems to be at a disadvantage and somewhat and at his mercy. It then becomes evident that these bigger themes play out around a pregnancy. The man wants her to end it, and she feels if she does, their future will never be the same. Either way, their future will be impacted. The story's combatting ideologies are freedom of choice for the man and right to life for Jig. These are the same hot button issues regarding abortion today. It is interesting how last week's theme of women in a place of repression is coming up again in this week's story. The man seems to be an older man who is with a young woman, perhaps trying to relive a sense of youth and adventure. The girl may want a sense of stability or has daddy issues. I'm not sure on either account. However, the theme of compromising one's core values comes up again. Jig is willing to compromise her desires and wishes in order to keep this man happy. By saying "I don't care about me", her self worth seems to be based on his acceptance. It seems she'd rather lose herself and keep him. It's interesting she threatens him by saying "I'll scream" and then at the end she states "I feel fine." This double minded, schizophrenic like mindset is indicative of what happens when you give yourself over to another person while compromising who you are. You become a slave to whatever you give yourself over to and your decisions and freedom to chose are no longer yours. Perhaps letting go is better than getting dragged.
I really like your analysis on this week's short story. In the story as you read you begin to realize that the entire conversation started from an abortion, but not just that. Other than the abortion being the problem, I agree where you mention the theme of compromising one's core values. You can tell between the two characters that they both have internal issues that they need to take care of. For example, Jig and her self worth depending on the man's acceptance is one of the problems she had. It seems like their relationship was not good to begin with and the abortion being something they need to decide on, it brought up each others flaws.
ReplyDeleteYou've made excellent observations on this week's reading. I do think that Jig has given herself to The American - and yes, she has also become a slave to him. Perhaps she did have Daddy Issues. Her happiness seemed to rely only on what he would accept.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think the reason why she told him, "I'll scream", is because the American was masking care and concern for her while politely pushing her to do something she clearly didn't want to do, let alone even say out loud.
I'd imagine it'd be pretty difficult to hear someone you love telling you to do away with something so pure, while calling the entire thing simple and natural. She asked him over and over again to stop. He continued to push dialogue. She accepted defeat.
I think that by her saying, "I feel fine" to him, she accepted her submission to him and is making her peace with it. She had already consumed so much alcohol. Any further conversation about it would've been overkill.