Hills Like White Elephants Analysis

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Family acts a needle the sews all the relationships among people together and makes a stronger bond; however, each individual has his self-interests that he tries to employ upon other people. Due to some those people’s egotistical curiosities and interests; tensions, conflicts, and hardships arise within the family or relationship. In Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills like White Elephants, certain characters from each story have an immense effect on the relationships by expressing their egotistical values to their families or significant others. In both short stories, the problem is that the characters have a lack of mutual understanding with one another. This is because there is constant bickering…show more content…
In Hills like White Elephants, the man has a stronger and more dominant role over the woman and he is better off getting what he wants because he somewhat convinces his girlfriend, even forcefully. This is a signal that demonstrates that the man wants to live a free and uncommitted lifestyle which means he has no intentions of starting a family. His interests are to continue travelling which is evident when he looks at the suitcases that have “labels...from all the totals where they had spent their nights” (Hemingway 122). When he looks at the suitcases and reminisces about those times, it is quite noticeable that he wants those types of moments to come back because his girlfriend and him were able to do what they wanted without any restrictions. If he allows the girl to continue her pregnancy, they would then create a family and it will definitely change their relationship. Becnel sheds light on the perspective of the man’s attitude towards the baby and his girlfriend. This is present how the man clearly has a “a resistance to marriage and fatherhood” which is making him impatient for the girl to get an abortion (Becnel). Becnel’s idea about the man’s resistance to marriage and nurturing a baby are useful because they call attention to the important issue of how the man does not have a connection with the woman since…show more content…
In contrast to Hills like White Elephants, in O'Connor's story A Good man is Hard to Find, each character in the short story has his or her own interests which widens the gap, understanding, and mutuality within the family. This is because there are many conflicts between the family members throughout the story because each person tries to institute his or her thoughts and desires. O’Connor represents familial conflict as the norm. The story starts with the grandmother trying to show Bailey an article from the newspaper and he completely ignores her. Her grandchildren, June and John, willingly mock her and disrespect her. The grandmother wants to go to Tennessee, the kids want to have fun, and Bailey wants to drive down towards Florida; which brings up the conflict of each character having his or her self-interests and wishes. Wiebke Omnus organizes and provides good detail into each character’s motives and how they interact with one another. The family is constantly interacting with one another this is because “The grandmother gives Bailey and his wife parenting tips, which they disregard, and the children are, to varying degrees, disobedient and disrespectful toward their elders” (Omnus). Omnus does a good job giving insight into the selfish traits of each character and how each
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