This blog post will be focused about the short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, and my response to the question about her decision, whether I think decided to leave or not and why I think that.
Jig did leave him at the end, not yet physically, but her decision was made. throughout the text we see the man telling her things such as "I know you wouldn't mind it" which seemed like the man was speaking for himself and for her instead of asking for her thoughts about it yet she was reacting in a very classy and smart way every time he would say something similar. throughout the story the man keeps saying things that makes such a dangerous operation at the time sounds like a very simple thing to get through "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" and "I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you really don't want to". reading lines like these it shows that he's only trying to make her feel like she have a choice meanwhile he clearly wants her to do one thing without showing that he cares about her healthy and safety more than anything. It's kind of felt like when you apologize to someone by saying "I'm sorry, BUT..." It's not until the end of the story when it kind of becomes a lot easier to see that Jig made up her mind about leaving him. towards the end whenever the man wants to say something or arguing to convince her with his point we see Jig just interrupting him by saying that she doesn't want to talk about it, or when she says that she agrees with him before he makes a point which felt like the nice way to say "yeah...whatever you're right I don't care about this argument anymore". So again, the ending makes it kind of clear that her decision was made, but regardless of the ending, no girl with any sense in her head would stay in a relationship where she is disrespected to a level where her opinion doesn't really matter in important argument regarding a choice that could hurt her mentally and physically for the rest of her life.
Few years ago, during lunch break in school one of my good friends walked to me and said "Once you go back to class he will ask you about this kid" referring to one of our mutual friends who didn't attend the same school, for this story I'll call him Jake, and for the school bully I'll call him Max. what she said to me didn't make any sense, It confused me because she seemed rattled, so I asked "Who will ask me", she sat down, took a deep breath and started to explain the situation to me "The other day Jake walked me home from school, However Max spotted us that day and you know how things work here" by saying that she meant that most people who see a girl they know walking with a strange boy, they would gossip about the story and make a huge deal of it calling that girl all types of disgusting things, It's the way most people think in a mid eastern culture. She keeps going "He said few words to me today about spotting me with Jake, I don't want him spreading words around the school so I told him that Jake is my cousin, when he said I'm lying I told him to ask you because you know Jake as well", I said "Sure, I'll say that" I told Max what she wanted me to say, and everything went as perfect as she wanted, nobody talked about it. about a week after that, I remember that I asked her to do something for me, I don't remember what it was exactly, but I do remember it was a very silly thing, might have been giving me some homework answers or helping me cheat on a test, and she said no, because if things went south it gets her in trouble too. But as I mentioned earlier the only person I used to think about is me, so the argument started to go back and forth between me asking for help and her refusing, I don't know what popped in my head and I say in a silly way "Hey, I'd tell Max that Jake isn't your cousin" I didn't mean to say it, and I'm wasn't serious at that moment. But I'm was a very stubborn person at the time, so as soon as I told her that she responded with a smile on "Go ahead, I don't care" She said that because she knew It was me being silly, "You know I'll do it" I said but I heard the same response "Go ahead, I told you I don't really care" and that was when I understood it as if she was provoking me which she clearly wasn't, and I turned it into a serious thing, it hit a point when she realized i'm wasn't joking anymore, I walked away looking for the kid, I ran into him and I told him, as soon as she knew I did, she talked about it to one of the counselors that was close to the female students, and that counselor called me in to ask me why I did that, and tell me that it was wrong...etc. as soon as I walked to her office, I remember seeing my friend sitting there crying, because she knew what's coming. that moment alongside the next few days of hearing kids talking about her in negative ways made me realize how much of an idiot I used to be. It's a situation that I didn't attempt to fix and contain, instead I chose to walk away and that's something I'll always regret but It's also an experience that helped shaping me in a way where I'd never let down someone who trusts me, or break a promise I make no matter at what cost, as well as teaching me a lot about how forgiving some people could be since we are currently friends again, far from being close friends, but the type of friend that you'd have a talk with once in a while.
1 Comment
In Wang's grandmother's situation she lived years beyond those three months, but if she didn't her family would have taken from her the one final chance to do something she loves but never got to do. or they could have prevented her from saying something she always wanted to say to someone that meant a lot to her. I do understand her family's perspective and good intentions, but just like Lulu mentioned towards the beginning, that decision prevented her from having one honest farewell talk with her grandmother who meant a lot to her. That's why I strongly dislike the family decision and consider lying to someone about such a serious thing a line that shouldn't be crossed, everyone in a similar situation to Wang's Grandmother deserves to make one final wish before they die! for some cultures that last wish is sacred. It shouldn't be taken away from someone and replaced with a lie.
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Majd LabbadMy name is Majd, Welcome to my blog page, this blog section will be a mix between my class assignments and a peak into my personal life :) Archives
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