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Women In Ernest Hemingway's Cat In The Rain And Hills Like White Elephants

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“Women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their oppressors,” -Evelyn Cunningham. During the early 20th century, society’s expectations of women were tremendously different than how they are currently in the 21st century. Women were expected to be submissive to the men around them and had to listen, obey, and serve them. Prominent examples were represented in Ernest Hemingway’s stories, “Cat in the Rain” and “Hills like White Elephants.” Both of the well-known short stories were written in the 1920s and depict the mistreatment of women. Hemingway wrote, “Cat in the Rain” and “Hills like White Elephants” which characterized and represented women as silent, submissive victims who were oppressed …show more content…

Her husband responded with, “I like it the way it is” (Hemingway). The woman distinctly professed she was tired of her looking like a boy. He clearly did not care about how comfortable his wife was in her own skin. He only wanted to keep himself pleased, instead of considering his wife’s feelings. The dialogue demonstrated the lack of control the woman had, not just over her own hair, but over their relationship. George wanted to control her life and she obliged, which revealed how submissive she was required to …show more content…

As the plot unraveled, it became evident the main character, Jig, was pregnant, but her significant other, the American man, wanted to persuade her to have an abortion. The man first mentioned the abortion when he stated, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all” (Hemingway). Jig did not respond, therefore the man continued to persuade her to get an abortion by oversimplifying the operation. She questioned what they would do post-abortion, so he explained that they would be happy, just like the couples they knew. The man put on a facade about how he wanted Jig to be happy and make the decision herself, yet he continually tried to convince her to have the abortion. Undoubtedly, the man did not want to take any responsibility for their relationship and the baby, and wanted the easy way out. He did not respect her view on the subject, therefore he forced the idea that the abortion would be their best option. Since Jig was submissive and dependent, she agreed, “Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine” (Hemingway). She was not concerned about herself or whether she would be happy; her interest was in the man and whether he would continue to love her. If Jig had voiced her opinion by actually discussing the matter with the man, he would have silenced her thoughts and convince

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The work is not yet complete, and is evident by looking at the domination of women throughout the centuries, specifically the 19th and 20th century, which was the height of the women’s rights movement. By analyzing two literary works from two different eras, “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the late 19th century and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” written by Adrienne Rich in the mid-20th century, one can conclude that while there have been improvements to women’s rights, there is still discrimination prevalent. Although set in two different time periods, the main

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Throughout their conversation, you can decipher a tone where the conversation sheds light on his feelings towards the procedure and her feelings. He says “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all” (Hemingway 124), in an effort to persuade her to in fact have the abortion. She, on the other hand, seems silent at first, but then questions how their life will be better after this procedure. Her uncertainty shows in her responses, and in other findings “… the sensuous beauty of a love relation that is quickly deteriorating, now that she has become conscious of her lover’s selfishness” (Maynard 273).

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After skimming through Volume 1 of The Norton Anthology Literature by Women, I noticed the reoccurring themes of patriarchy, women subordination, and the strength to be creative despite oppression. During the times that these literary pieces were written, women were constantly battling the patriarchy in order to get basic rights. During the earlier time periods, intelligence was seen as a sign of an evil spirit in a woman, resulting in miniscule amounts of literary works written by women. Women were not provided with equal spaces to creatively express themselves, as mentioned by Virginia Woolf. Moreover, they were not given the same publishing opportunities, many women either went anonymous or by a fake male name to have their works published.

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They didn’t know what to do when they found out that she was pregnant; they were young, they didn’t have any money, they were scared, they didn’t want to tell anybody, they didn’t know what to do, and the only option that they could see was to terminate the pregnancy. So that’s what they decided to do… they went to a clinic, they had the procedure done, and at first they felt relieved that all their problems had gone away. But then something happened that they did not expect… and that’s over the next few weeks, which turned into a few months, they began to feel an intense sadness… and a pain and an agony and a guilt that wouldn’t go away. They didn’t know what to do, so they finally went to see a counselor; they said look — tell us what to do, we just don’t know, and the counselor made a suggestion. The counselor said here’s what you need to do — stop acting like you had a procedure, and act like you had a death in the family.”

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But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to,” (Hemingway 3). The Girl, however, dismisses him and keeps her independent opinion no matter what judgment may spring from the man. The short story ends with the girl saying,, “There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine,” (Hemingway 4). She asserts her confidence and the way she feels, not conforming to the man’s beliefs.

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Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

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Social Breakdown in The Great Gatsby Women can achieve what they want using their intelligence, but men treat them in a way that makes them feel worth less than they actually do or are unable to do things because of that. “The thing that women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” (Roseanne Barr). Women’s surroundings and the way they are treated affects their decisions and behavior.

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She looks at the hills, the bead curtain, or the ground, but not at him. He looks at her, but not sympathetically, only waiting for the chance to press his argument to go forth with the abortion (Hannum). This proves Jig’s unsureness of the decision she’s about to make it, because no matter what time zone it is any man should figure out women who have something on their mind barely talk, look everyone else or, worst of all, could barely look at you. Faced with the approach of the Madrid train, after the fresh presentation of the American’s selfishness, Jig has realized that he does not love her, wants her only as a sex partner, and shows no promise of maturing (Hannum). Jig’s smile at the end of the store does not represent her simple agreement to the American’s

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The conflict between the two characters is the issue of abortion and whether or not the girl will go through it. Hemingway does not tell us that the girl is pregnant but hints it throughout the story referring to “the operation” as having an abortion. From the start, you can take

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The dialogue in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” reveals a man’s and a woman’s incongruent conflict on abortion, and the author’s fundamentally feminist position is visible in the portrayal of the woman’s independent choice of whether or not to keep the baby she is carrying. The plot is very simple in the story which is less than 1500 words long. A woman and a man spend less than an hour on a hot summers day at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train heading for Madrid. Their dialogue takes up most of the space and only few major actions take place.

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For instance, during their discussion on drinks, the girl states "I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it, look at things and try new drinks" (Hemingway 2). This utilization of mood demonstrates the girl being despondent with the life she is experiencing with the man. There is not a genuine heading in their life and this presents readers with how she is already worn out on their migrant way of life. Indeed, living a life of traveling regularly and drinking at their brief destinations.

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Ernest Miller Hemingway was raised in a sexist/ racist time period. Almost all of Ernest Hemingway 's works show some type of sexism or racism. Two of his main short stories are “Indian Camp” and “The Doctor and the Doctor 's Wife”. In “Indian camp” Nick 's father has to deliver a woman 's baby, she has been in labor for two days. Sadly even though her situation is so dangerous, men still don`t care.

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Kenan’s story also helped me understand the magnitude of being overpowered by a lover or a husband like the woman was by her husband in Hemingway’s story. The woman in Hemingway’s story did not want to go through an abortion, but her man convinces her to do it. Hemingway states, “‘...I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you’” (362).

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According to Smiley, “The dialogue contains the essence of the story's power; for to read Jig's and the American conversation is to recognize the powerless frustration of parallel interchanges” (2). The girl's character passes changes throughout the story. It appears that “Hemingway works out the story's conflict, which revolves around the development of his female character” (Renner 28). The girl gains power and frees herself from the following the American man. In the beginning of the story, the girl take the initiative to speak which leads to the discussion: “'what should we drink?'

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Hemingway shows this through the wife’s character, who is perceived as lively and wants to go out in the rain to save a cat. Her husband looks to be the complete opposite of her as he ignores his wife’s longing for the cat and immerses himself in a book on the bed. Hemingway refers to the wife as an “American wife” to show the reader her reflection of a stereotypical ‘American wife’ where they are dependent on their husbands and meet society’s expectations of a wife which can be incredibly dull and dreary. However, her energy and spirit changes when she sees the cat in the rain and tries to go out and rescue it as if for a temporary sense of purpose. The cat is a representation of a child that the wife wants because she is not able to receive or display affection to her husband so she’d rather give all her attention to a child.

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