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Hills Like White Elephant And The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

1832 Words8 Pages

“Hills like White Elephants” & “The Yellow Wallpaper” Once upon a time, a romantic fairy tale was a dream come true. A handsome prince and his beautiful princess fall in love and live happily ever after. Furthermore, in modern literature this phrase “happily ever after” is now questionable. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are short stories driven by conflict. Both short stories portray female protagonist whose feelings and thoughts are brought down by their masculine significant other causing their relationship to fracture. Young women today are manipulated by men, make them feel powerless and are unable to stand or trust their own instincts. Are these women truly happy …show more content…

They both show the stubbornness of the male characters and they believe what they think is right for the women, even if it is the right decision. “Hills like White Elephants” shows a man that says that loves “Jig,” but if he really loved her he would show support and start a family with her. On the other hand “The Yellow Wallpaper” John is ignoring the fact of how his wife is feeling. In addition, John makes fun of her acts and reactions. The title of the story is a mystery “Hills like White Elephants” meaning a hidden secret, an innocent unborn child that is a barrier in their supposed loving relationship, where the man has the last word in the decision making. “The Yellow Wallpaper” a paper that comes to represents a powerless woman who is trying to escape form loneliness. She has no option but to follow what John says, having just role being a wife and mother. It is upsetting to know when the one person who is supposed to be there in the good and bad is not there, even if he is there physically. The last thing about these short stories is that they have a completely different ending. One story remains unresolved and leaves it to the mystery, the second story ends where the character tears off the yellow paper and finally has the control of her own

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