Literature and the arts are similar, they require us to tap into a deeper level of understand in what we read and see. The words are often an author’s experiences, thoughts, feeling, ideas or convictions. As readers we can sometimes connect with the author, having an emotional reaction to their works. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, the young couple is making a life decision about going through an abortion. I too was faced this decision in my own life at a young age. The question here in these three literature pieces is when we are faced with “life and death” situations what is the morally right thing to do? There are some decisions we can make for ourselves and our own life, and then there are other decisions we are confronted with that effects another person/animal’s life.
Abortion is a controversial topic these days,
…show more content…
The man that has pulled over on the side of the narrow road is planning on rolling it down the canyon “It is usually best to roll them into the canyon” (Ln 3); until he hesitates and realized that her belly is warm and big; she must be pregnant. “The concept of personhood, in other words, is the bridge that connects the fetus with the right to life” (Hinman). Any animal much less a dead animal can’t convey to us the choice it wants us to make for it; Stafford narrators for us that the man, “I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red; around our group I could hear the wilderness listen. I thought hard for us all…then pushed her over the edge into the river” (Ln15-18). This man made a decision for “all of us”, who? , “all other cars on the road”? He made a selfish decision based on his moral status of what a fetus is to him. He might have eased his guilt by saying he wanted to save other lives on the road that night, or thought he was easing the pain of the fawn not having to grow up without its