The short stories that I choose to compare in Year of the Elephant are “The
Sisters” and “An Expensive Dinner”. In my opinion, these two short stories show negative characteristics of women and the effects that they have on others. To begin, “The Sisters” was a short story about two sisters, the younger sister whom in which was married to the ex-husband of her older sister. After a turn in the health of the older sister, the younger felt that she was obligated to take care of her ill sister because she was the only family that she had. This attitude about caring attitude about caring for her sister contradicts what it means to be family. Ideally a family member is supposed to step up and help their relative, regardless of the situation, without feeling regretful for doing so. For this outlook, the
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Instead of using anger and envy as depicted in ‘”The Sisters”, the hostess uses the deception of flirtation to manipulate the husbands while having dinner. Once arriving for the dinner, the hostess continuously pressured the husbands to remove their jackets. Cautious at first the husbands denied the hostess request but with a little persuasion the husbands removed their jackets. During the remainder of the dinner the hostess was extremely polite to the men and delivered an amazing dinner to the guests. After the dinner came to an end and on the ride home, the men bragged about the behavior of the hostess until they all realized that their wallets were missing from their jackets. The hostess used her beauty and manners to manipulate the men and steal their wallets. Both short stories reveal how some women choose to make decisions by using their characteristics. This decision can have negative effects on the people who are in their environment. Unfortunately, these behaviors are continuously seen in women of younger and older