Selfishness In The Short Story 'Hills Like White Elephants'

857 Words4 Pages

The state of being happy is happiness, and everybody wants to possess happiness. Everyone has the fundamental right to pursue this happiness even if we go out our way to cause hell on others. As humans, we will do egotistical things to make sure we can keep the little bit of pleasure in our life, even if we have to sacrifice another human chance of happiness. In the short story, "Hills Like White Elephants" the readers will discover how the price of selfishness causes misery for others, selfishness is the key to the characters' relationship, and an absence of communication can end an innocent life. Throughout "Hills Like White Elephants" the readers can assume that the communication between the young couple is absent. Even though the short story is mostly dialogue, the couple fails to communicate about their relationship and the abortion. The couples fail to make their opinions clear, and this causes distress for the couple. After failing to get somewhere with the abortion topic, the couple realizes that their relationship is ending. They grasp that if the woman gets the abortion that their relationship will not be the same as if was once before. The shortcoming of their relationship comes from the shortage of not communicating like a couple should. When the young woman speaks about the hills looking like white elephants the man fails to connect with her, he also fails to relate with her when she was trying to tell him in an …show more content…

The readers read about a young couple who are not corresponding with each other when it comes to the abortion of their baby. The man is not ready to put his life on hold for a baby he does not want. The woman is ready to settle down for the baby, but she is willing to abort her baby for the price of their broken relationship that will probably end after the couple realized they should go their separate