I felt that it was hard to breathe after reading the story.
I think both of them( the girl and the man) can be understood. For the girl, she may be too young to have a baby and it can be really difficult for her to raise up a baby at her age. But I am also a girl, although I've never had such experience, I can imagine that if I have a boyfriend and I got pregnant, and it can be really difficult for me to make a decision about having an abortion or not. For me, I think I will choose to have an abortion.
It's lucky for the girl to have an abortion, because the man doesn't care about the girl at all. She would suffer more if she gives birth to the baby. Althought the man said he loves the girl, but I don't believe. If he cares about the girl, he would have said something nice to the girl, but not just 'the operation is perfectly simple'.
I don't like the girl, either. The story was written in 1927. At that time, how can a girl have sex with a man before they get married? The girl seemed so loose, because she was having sex with a man who doesn't care about her at all. I don't like the girl for another reason. She was trying to let others make decision for her. As she already knew the boy doesn't care about her, she stilll kept asking her 'boyfriend' whether she would have an abortion or not. She finally even felt there's nothing wrong with her, which made me a little bit angry. She did that with a man, and she got pregnant, and she agreed to kill the fetus, but she didn't feel anything wrong with her.
She thought that the man could love her more, however, he is a very cold man in this story. Nowadays it's very common, I think. I don't like to see young couples because I think they are just having very simple fun with each other. Girls are always the victims. Human beings are not animals, we can or we have to control our behavior I think.
A strongly-stated point of view, Xiaoyue! I am glad that you interacted with the story imaginatively, and am very pleased that you engaged the story with both your mind and your heart.
ReplyDeleteI want to encourage you, gently, I hope, to not judge the characters too harshly. This is especially true of the girl. The narrator communicates to us a significant difference in power and experience between the man and the girl. This starts with their designations: "man" and "girl", not "man" and "woman". Furthermore, the girl is completely linguistically-dependent on the man, and is dependent on his knowledge of the world in other ways, too (e.g., he knows more about various kinds of alcohol than she does). The girl of Hills Like White Elephants did not have movies to educate her, and she probably lacked the experience of honest, frank communication on the topic of sex. As for the man, Hee-Jung and Kia have written the best defenses of him; you may wish to take a look at these and my comments on their posts.
Human sexuality has been a problematic area as long as our species have existed. As long as there have been men and women, the men have been getting the women pregnant. It's hard-wired into our biology and our genetic makeup.
One would think that the religions of the world would be tolerant about something that is not only a "part of human nature," but the reason for our very existence, but they are not. But this is not without reason: the sexual act can lead to the birth of a child, and that changes everything. (This is why each culture has established a system for parenting children, though those systems vary widely from culture to culture.) Unfortunately, religious prohibitions have led to the preaching of a good deal too much guilt and shame about the sexual act, with "God" supposedly handing down moral prescripts surrounding this.
On the other hand, even Jesus said "Judge not, least you be judged." Like the writers of the Gospels, Hemingway, too, was a story-teller who sought to share what he perceived to be his insights into human nature. Unlike the Gospels, though, Hemingway wasn't in the habit of writing moral prescriptions. Rather, his stories present to us images of humanity as it really exists, with all of its foibles. He is not inviting us to condemn, but to rather to understand and to empathize. This is how literature broadens our minds and horizons and makes us better people. This doesn't mean that one can't have or shouldn't have values and beliefs, of course, and it would be a mistake to be "so open-minded that our brains are falling out"!
;-)
In any case, you are an eloquent writer and you have a good grasp of the story, so: well done!
Thank you for the comment!I appreciate your comment very much.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I stated my opinion too strongly, if this story happens nowadays, it's quite common though. Probably because I was in a Christian school, I was influenced a little bit I think.
I really respect your opinion and I was very excited when you told me what you thought about the story yesterday. I tried to read Nathan's comment, but I think I have only 5 mins to write my commnent for you. I made a clear decision to write my comment. haha.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Many girls sometimes give men choices to make a decision even if the decision mostly involves whant they whant. It is too difficult to handle it, but I think we should learn how to express what we really want although we are afraid of that we might loose our "love".
I think the most important person who I should love first is myself. I can love others, even my family, after I love myself enough.
Like you said yesterday, I hope you can love yourself beautifully and you will fall in love with a guy who knows your charm very well.
Thank you very much for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI think I need a lot of time, and I hope all of us can be happy.
Xiaoyue, I don't think you stated your opinion too strongly at all; in fact, I'm very glad you have strong beliefs and the courage to share them. I admire you for this! I think you wrote a very good personal response to the story. I responded to you. Now you are free to respond again, if you like. But don't be shy! Don't worry too much about "being right" or "being wrong"; what matters is that you have engaged the story both intellectually and emotionally, and you have expressed your thoughts in a "personal" response. That's good!
ReplyDelete