Gender Roles In Soldiers Home By Ernest Hemingway

Two of the major topics that Ernest Hemingway portrays in his writings are gender roles and the lost generation. The story that portrays both of these the most is “Hills Like White Elephants.” This story is symbolism for an abortion that only one of the characters wants. The other story that portrays the lost generation is “Soldiers Home.” Gender roles play a huge part on the lost generation in these stories. In both of these stories the the woman figure does not understand what the men want. In “Soldier’s Home” the mother is the main parental figure who says what both of the parents think or want. She tries to push her son Krebs into trying to get a job or to go hang out with friends. What she does not realize is that her son is lost and

“Hills Like White Elephants” has very obvious gender roles between the woman “Jig” and the unnamed man character. The man represents the lost generation because he wants to live freely and not settle down. He wants to keep traveling and thinks that the child would mess his vision of a perfect future. Because he is lost he is the cause of the gender roles in this story. The man wants Jig to get an abortion and this really upsets her. Jig is not lost. You can tell that she is the character that is still there because she can still see reality. The exchange of words that shows you this is ‘I said we could have

The junction in the railroad tracks in “Hills Like White Elephants” really represents how lost the man is and what way Jig is going to go. One way is with him while the other way is without. In “Soldier’s Home” the library and all of the war books represent Krebs’s actual home because he does not know what to do with his life. In both stories the women do not understand what the men are trying to say and have trouble with getting them to see in their