The "white Elephant" in the Room

The "White Elephant" in the Room

Its been long said that, "men are from Mars and women are from Venus" about the relationships and interactions between men and women; Hemingway had no trouble in conveying this simple concept in his story, Hills like White Elephants, where the story is quick to point out the communication differences between a couples dialogue during their rather touchy predicament. Where he excels in this story is really showcasing failure of communication between man and woman during stressful dialogue.

Firstly, to understand how there is failure and a breakdown in the couple's communication you have to understand exactly the two distinct styles of communication of the couple.

The man in this story clearly holds the power of the relationship; he is completely void of all emotion in his dialogue. Every time he speaks during the conversation, he is quick and to the point, making sure to never divulge to the woman how he really feels about the issue at hand. Throughout the story he uses lines such as, "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig...It's not really an operation at all" or, "if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple." (Hemingway 295) The later of those two line really go to show the hold and tactic the man uses to persuade Jig to get the operation; he downplays the seriousness of the situation by explaining to her how simple it is and giving some sense of experience on the subject. Jig on the other hand is the more emotional and poignant of the couple. When she speaks, it gets annoying because it seems that all she care about is to not offend or to satisfy what the man wants. She becomes a sucker for his manipulative tactics of downplaying the situation, even though she is the one who is pregnant and she is the one who will be going through the operation.

But no matter the point of the story, she makes it clear that she doesn't care about herself and only cares to please him. It's a frustrating account to read, especially this particular exchange, "If I don't do it you wont ever worry? - I won't worry about that because it's perfectly simple. - Then ill do it. Because I don't care about me. - What do you mean? - I don't care about me. - Well, I care about you. - Oh, yes. But I don't care about me. And ill do it and then everything will be fine. - I don't want you to do it if you feel that way." (Hemingway 296) This only goes to show the breakdown of the couples communication throughout the story; they engage in an almost child-like game of push and pull. Neither person really divulges their true feelings or intentions, instead they disguise it with either tactics of manipulation and subliminal persuasion or they just outright ignore them.

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