Abuzo, Judith A. MW- 5:30-7:00p M301AB-Political Science

Hills like white elephants

1. Comment on the authors as they relate to their work.

The "Roaring Twenties" were a time of great excess and self-indulgence. It was quite

common for wealthy socialites of the day who became bored with the United States to

pull up stakes and move to Europe on a whim. Among these expatriates was a young

author named Ernest Hemingway. In 1926, shortly after completing his novel The Sun

Also Rises, Hemingway wrote "Hills Like White Elephants," a short story dealing with

an expatriate couple in Spain faced with an unplanned pregnancy ("Hills"). The male

character in "Hills Like White Elephants" wants the female character, referred to as Jig

, to get an abortion because a baby would complicate their frivolous lifestyle. However,

Jig appears reluctant to go through with the procedure. In "Hills Like White Elephants,"

Hemingway strongly manifests through the male character, whose main concern in life

is seeing the world and drinking new drinks, and Jig is representative of the contempt

Hemingway felt towards women and other forces in his life that impeded his

wanderlust.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a conservative suburb of Chicago, in

1899. Later in his life, Hemingway wrote that Oak Park was a town of "wide lawns and

narrow minds." During Hemingway's childhood, his mother was determined to turn

Ernest into a musician. Ernest was not overly interested in music, however, and he

"suffered" through the various musical practices his mother forced him to take part in.

. Like most boys would be, he was much more interested in hunting and fishing,

activities introduced to him by his father. By the time Hemingway graduated from high

school in 1917, America was involved in World War One, and Ernest looked at military

service as the perfect way to get out of Oak Park. (Wilson)

However, Hemingway encountered a hurdle when he tried to enlist in the army. Doctors

determined that his vision was too poor in his left eye for duty, so he was deferred.

Although it would be unfair to blame her for this, Hemingway's mother also had poor

eyesight, and he most likely inherited it from her. Still looking for an excuse to leave

home, Hemingway learned that the Red Cross was accepting volunteer ambulance

drivers, and he left for Europe in April of 1918. Ernest was in Europe for only a little

while, returning home in 1919, but his experiences abroad made mundane life in Oak

Park seem even more unbearable. (Wilson)

2. Evaluate the characters in both literary piece

The American - The male protagonist of the story. The American never reveals his

name, nor does the girl ever directly address him by name. He is determined to

convince the girl to have the operation but tries to appear as though he doesn’t care

what she does. He remains disconnected from his surroundings, not really

understanding or even listening to what the girl has to say.

The Girl - The female protagonist of the story. The American calls the girl “Jig” at one

point in the story but never mentions her real name. Unlike the American, the girl is less

sure of what she wants and appears reluctant to have the operation in question. She

alternates between wanting to talk about the operation and wanting to avoid the topic

altogether.

The Bartender - The woman serving drinks to the American man and the girl. The

bartender speaks only Spanish.

3. Discuss the literary devices such as:a. Point of view

The third-person narrator takes the fly-on-the-wall technique to extremes in "Hills Like

White Elephants." We can see both the journalist and the storyteller in Hemingway

working together to construct the story. The journalist side doesn’t tell us what the

characters are thinking, only what they do, see, and most importantly, what they say.

b. Symbols

The girl's reference to white elephants could be in regards to the baby. The American

could see the baby as a white elephant and does not want to raise it because of the

cost, while the girl could see the child as an extraordinary addition to her mundane life

of drinking and mindless traveling."Hills Like White Elephants" shows Hemingway's use

of iceberg theory or theory of omission: a message is presented through a story's

subtext; for instance, in the story the word "abortion" is never mentioned, although the

male character seems to be attempting to convince his girlfriend to have an abortion

. The symbolism of the hills and the big white elephant can be thought of as the images

of a pregnant woman's swollen breasts and abdomen, and the prenatal dream of the

mother of the future Buddha in which a white elephant appears in her (in this case, as a

symbol of prestigious leadership.)

Apart from the hills, other parts of the setting provide symbolism which expresses the

tension and conflict surrounding the couple. The train tracks form a dividing line

between the barren expanse of land stretching toward the hills on one side and the

green, fertile farmland on the other, symbolizing the choice faced by each of the main

characters and their differing interpretations of the dilemma of pregnancy. The girl

focuses on the landscape during the conversation, rarely making eye contact with the

American.

The Cask of Amontillado

1. Comment on the authors as they relate to their work.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Inspiration

An apocryphal legend holds that the inspiration for "The Cask of Amontillado" came

from a story Poe had heard at Castle Island (South Boston), Massachusetts, when he

was a private there in 1827. According to this legend, while stationed at Castle Island in

1827 he saw a monument to Lieutenant Robert Massie. Massie had been killed in a

sword duel on Christmas Day 1817 by Lieutenant Gustavus Drane, following a dispute

during a card game. According to the legend, other soldiers then took revenge on Drane

by getting him drunk, luring him into the dungeon, chaining him to a wall, and sealing

him in a vault (though the last part is untrue, as Drane

wascourtmartialled and acquitted, living until 1846) A report of a skeleton discovered on

the island may be a confused remembering of Poe's major source, Joel Headley's "A

Man Built in a Wall" in his "Letters from Italy" (1844), which recounts the author's seeing

animmured skeleton in the wall of a church in Italy. Headley's story includes details very

similar to "The Cask of Amontillado"; in addition to walling an enemy into a hidden

niche, the story details the careful placement of the bricks, the motive of revenge, and

the victim's agonized moaning. Poe may have also seen similar themes in Honoré de

Balzac's "Le Grande Bretêche" (Democratic Review, November 1843) or his

friend George Lippard's The Quaker City; or The Monks of Monk Hall (1845). Poe may

have borrowed Montresor's family motto Nemo me impune lacessit from James

Fenimore Cooper, who used the line in The Last of the Mohicans(1826).

Poe wrote his tale, however, as a response to his personal rival Thomas Dunn English.

Poe and English had several confrontations, usually revolving around literary

caricatures of one another. Poe thought that one of English's writings went a bit too far,

and successfully sued the other man's editors at The New York Mirror for libel in 1846.

That year English published a revenge-based novel called 1844, or, The Power of the

S.F. Its plot was convoluted and difficult to follow, but made references to secret

societies and ultimately had a main theme of revenge. It included a character named

Marmaduke Hammerhead, the famous author of "The Black Crow", who uses phrases

like "Nevermore" and "lost Lenore", referring to Poe's poem "The Raven". This parody

of Poe was depicted as a drunkard, liar, and an abusive lover.

Poe responded with "The Cask of Amontillado", using very specific references to

English's novel. In Poe's story, for example, Fortunato makes reference to the secret

society ofMasons, similar to the secret society in 1844, and even makes a gesture

similar to one portrayed in 1844 (it was a signal of distress). English had also used an

image of a token with a hawk grasping a snake in its claws, similar to Montresor's coat

of arms bearing a foot stomping on a snake — though in this image, the snake is biting

the heel. In fact, much of the scene of "The Cask of Amontillado" comes from a scene

in 1844 that takes place in a subterranean vault. In the end, then, it is Poe who

"punishes with impunity" by not taking credit for his own literary revenge and by crafting

a concise tale (as opposed to a novel) with a singular effect, as he had suggested in

essay "The Philosophy of Composition".

Further inspiration for the method of Fortunato's murder comes from the fear of live

burial. During the time period of this short story some coffins were given methods of

alerting the outside in the event of live entombment. Items such as bells tied to the limbs

of a corpse to signal the outside were not uncommon. This theme is evident when we

observe Fortunato's costume of a jester with bells upon his hat, and his situation of live

entombment within the catacombs.

2. Evaluate the characters in both literary pieceFortunato- is addicted to wine. He’s already really drunk when he meets

Montresor, and he thinks the Amontillado can help him take it to the next level.

Right up until the end, he thinks of Amontillado, and only Amontillado. Plus, he

lets Montresor get him get even more drunk down in the catacomb. His addiction

leaves him vulnerable to Montresor’s attack.

Montresor- Vowing revenge, because of some insult, which one of his

acquaintances, Fortunato, ventured upon, he tells him, that he has bought a

cask of what passes to be Amontillado, but, being not sure, whether it is really it,

he wants his advice. He leads drunken Fortunato, who doesn’t suspect anything

, to his vaults where he fetters him to the wall and then bricks him up in that

niche. After fifty years, unpunished and probably not even suspected to be able

to do such a thing, he tells this story.

Discuss the literary devices such as:a. Point of view

Montresor is our vile narrator. He is dedicated to his own point of view, which is

cold, merciless, brutal, conniving, and vengeful. He doesn’t mind telling us about

his tortureand murder of Fortunato; indeed, he thinks what he did was the just,

right way to handle the situation.

b. Symbols Amontillado was a significant symbol because it is what is used to lure Fortunato

and represents a rare attitude. Even though Montresor never even actually had

this rare wine, he tempted Fortunato to come with him to his Luchesi. Perhaps

this shows Fortunato's curiousity and temptations towards higher traditions in

life. Amontillado is rare, precious, and expensive.

Clown costume plays a significant role as well. This is Montresor's way of

humiliating Fortunato further for the anger he has caused Montresor. Montresor

wants Fortunato to die like the fool that he is. The symbols in this story of Poe's

are somewhat humiliating.