Hills Like White Elephants: Part Deux

http://www.holysmoke.org/fem/fem0420.htm

This is my context for Hills Like White Elephants.

In the 1920's, according to this piece, it is believed that one out of every four pregnancies ended in abortion. While abortions were illegal, they were all too common.

In fact, leading up to this time they weren't all that frowned upon either. Women thought of "quickening" as the beginning of life, therefore as long as the abortion happened earlier, nothing was lost.

It's weird for me to think about this, because it seems like our culture thinks of abortions as unpopular until the past few decades, since it became legal and the few years-to-a-decade prior.

After reading this, it seems to me that Hills Like White Elephants shows the conflict between "common and simple" and the emotion of a mother-to-be.

Hills Like White Elephants

Abortion. This is a sticky subject.

Hemingway avoids using the word, but paints a very vivid picture. The girl in the story sounds very young compared to the man, comparing the alcohol to licorice, and he calls her "Jig." She is very worried about the operation, and very uncertain, and the man doesn't let his opinion go unknown. He is never harsh with her, but still very pushy.

He assures her that things will go back to "how they were," because this is the only thing "that's made us unhappy." He also tells her that he doesn't want her to do anything she doesn't want to do, just that he won't worry about the procedure because it is so simple.

I don't know what Hemingway was thinking when he wrote this, but I know that everything is just too simple.

I've known a few girls who have gotten abortions, and it never stops after the "simple procedure." This isn't a preach on whether or not girls should get an abortion or should have the right to get an abortion, but just an opinion of the weight of such a "simple procedure."

The weight that the man feels in this story is nothing above a physical one. He sees the procedure as just that: strictly a medical ordeal. The girl seems, to me, to think that whether or not she keeps the baby determines whether she stays young or becomes an "adult."

She likes to say "cute" things and have the world in front of her, and also seems stuck between not wanting the procedure yet wanting things to be as they were before.

If I got any sort of moral from this story, it would be this:

You can remove a problem and try not to think about it, but things likely will never go back to "how they were."

Tender Buttons

My Facebook status is now officially "Sugar is not a vegetable."

This piece, divided into three equally confusing sections, seems to make the least sense out of anything I've ever read, yet simultaneously be the most quotable.

Stein plays with language unlike anyone I've ever seen. What really got my attention with her work is how it requires the written language.

Her style cannot be read aloud and maintain the meaning (or lack thereof) and have the same effect, because it plays with how we read and how we associate meaning with specific words with specific spellings.

Since reading this piece (peace), I feel more aware when I hear (here) words that could be written different ways.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Gilman wrote the Yellow Wallpaper in the late 19th Century. Reading this lovely story makes me very, very happy that I am living in the 21st Century.

Why does it make me so happy, you may ask? The main reason is because it seems like everyone was crazy. Just completely mentally insane.

First there is Gilman. She writes a story that confuses the brain and sends it in nonsensical circles. Then, as you start to research the story behind her piece, and look into the ridiculous "rest treatment" she was given, two things happen:

1) Your brain goes in circles that make a bit more sense, but still seem to lead toward a major migraine. The book the Yellow Wallpaper is, essentially, the yellow wallpaper in the book the Yellow Wallpaper. Ouch.

2) You see the root of the problem is this "rest treatment." Wow. The rest treatment. The rest of this blog is dedicated to the "cure" that led to this incredibly important yet painfully hard to read book.

Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell developed the rest cure. It was aimed to cure women with hysteria, depression and anxiety. The cure? Rest. Of course, this isn't the sit-at-home and watch television rest we think of today. This rest is torture.

Many women, in the first days of treatment, were not allowed to move out of their beds. None of the women were supposed to worry their pretty little heads with reading, writing or other simple activities. The women were essentially imprisoned for up to two months with little contact with the outside world.

Gilman writes about the rest cure taking her deeper into the problems it was supposed to fix.

If I were subject to the rest cure, I'm sure I would go crazy, too.

After reading the background, I can't blame Gilman for writing this book.

Well, I can't blame her as much.