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Popular Mechanics Raymond Carver

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In the stories “Popular Mechanics”, written by Raymond Carver, and “Hills Like White Elephants”, written by Ernest Hemingway, show the struggles that sometimes happens while being in a relationship. In “Popular Mechanics” Carver shows the struggle of being cheated on and the fight between the couple over their baby. The baby becomes more of an item when they fight trying to show who is a better person and parent. In “Hills Like White Elephants” Hemingway shows that not everyone wants to have a baby and that it can change your life drastically. The couples in “Popular Mechanics” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are arguing over a baby, are splitting up, and the stories have settings that represent what is happening. Both Couples are arguing …show more content…

However, the couple in “Hills Like White Elephants” are thinking about breaking up. “Popular Mechanics” starts with the man “pushing clothes into a suitcase” and the woman yelling at him saying “I’m glad you’re leaving!” showing that they have broken up and he is about to move out (Carver). The couple has already decided that they are not going to be together before the beginning of the story while in “Hills Like White Elephants” they decide during the story. In “Hills Like White Elephants” the couple are together trying to decide if they are going to have a baby or not. The man acts like he would be fine with having the baby but it is obvious he doesn’t want it at all saying “I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple” (Hemingway 925). She likes the idea of having a baby throughout the story and the man realizes she wants to have it. At the end of the story he walks through the bar and has a drink by himself and “look[s] at the people” to get used to being in a bar by himself again (Hemingway 926). He is planning to break up with her because she wants to have the baby and he wants to live his life the way he has been. When he gets back to her she has decided to have the baby if he wants to or not and is fine with it if he leaves saying “I feel fine… there’s nothing wrong with me” as in if there is something wrong it is with him (Hemingway …show more content…

“Popular Mechanics” use the time of year and weather to show the mood of the story. In “Hills Like White Elephants” where they are and the landscape around them show what is happening in the story. In “Popular Mechanics” Carver starts the story off with the time of year and weather that shows what the mood of the story will be: “the snow was melting into dirty water. Streaks of it ran down from the little shoulder-high window that faced the backyard. Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark.” This is showing after the bright snow that reminds people of happy times and Christmas cheer is mixing with the dirt and going back to the unhappy times. Carver also adds “But it was getting dark on the inside too” showing that even inside the houses is becoming unhappy. This setting emphasizes the mood the couple are feeling towards each other. They are feeling unhappy and dislike towards each other because what we can imply the man has cheated on the woman. The couple in “Hills Like White Elephants” are stopped at a train station that is between two different landscapes. “On [one] side there was no shade and no trees” this side of the train station represents what life would be like if she would not have the baby. Her life would be like “the dry side of the valley” (Hemingway 923, 926). “On the other side [of the valley] were fields of grain and trees along the banks of Ebro. Far away, beyond the

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Hemingway sets the story environment at a train station, with two very different sides of the tracks. This setting is interpreted as a metaphor for the choice at hand, an interpretation of life or death. One side reflecting a dry harsh area, with no trees, and devoid of life, on the other side of the

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Lane Jr. who's struggling with his faith will support and stand by Sheri and her decision concerning the pregnancy. Ernest Hemingway's" Hills Like White Elephants” allows his readers to come to the conclusion as to whether the couple in question will terminate or keep the unborn child. As Jig, and the American are

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Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants" and David Foster Wallace’s “Good People,” are respected, yet controversial text within American literature. In Both works they confront the hard-hitting reality of how couples face the struggles of an unwanted pregnancy when it occurs. These stories deal with realism at their cores but deal with them in their very own ways. Both stories share similarities and differences with each other and it’s all based on the authors Ernest Hemingway and David Foster Wallace views on these themes as well as their relationship.

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According to the woman the hills, “‘Look like white elephants,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen one’, the man drank his beer.” (p 1) This remark the woman gives, which seems rather random at first, acts like a pivot to talk about an issue. However, the man's response to her remark is an indication that the comparison of the hills and the white elephants are only the tip of the iceberg to the predicaments in the relationship.

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Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

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When was the last time you and your significant other fought? In Popular Mechanics by  Raymond Carver, the story is about a husband (or boyfriend) who is leaving for an unknown reason, he demands to take the baby with him, but the wife (or girlfriend) will not let him. Undoubtedly, the parent's rage and lack of communication leads to the death of their son. Raymond Carver presents symbolism throughout the short story to indicate something awful is going to happen.

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Nevertheless, Ernest Hemingway soon shows that this relationship contains a rift. This becomes apparent once they try conversing to one another. The girl attempts to spark a conversation by mentioning that the hills look like white elephants, but this topic soon turns hostile with the American’s replies. How this conversation is handled already shows that the couple “are trapped in a state of imbalance and disagreement” from the beginning (Link). The problem with the conversation is that the American’s personality of being simple and serious.

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“Everything tastes like licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway). The readers can see how their relationship is full of problems and deciding to have the baby or not is just one of the many problems they seem to have. The readers can see how alcohol has become the perfect symbol of this story when the she mentioned “That’s all we do isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks” (Hemingway). Their relationship and way of living has become a routine to them to avoid problems the go and try new drinks the readers can see this because although they never said anything about abortion the Hemingway gives you clues that the conversation is about deciding to have the baby or not.

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The dialogue in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” reveals a man’s and a woman’s incongruent conflict on abortion, and the author’s fundamentally feminist position is visible in the portrayal of the woman’s independent choice of whether or not to keep the baby she is carrying. The plot is very simple in the story which is less than 1500 words long. A woman and a man spend less than an hour on a hot summers day at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train heading for Madrid. Their dialogue takes up most of the space and only few major actions take place.

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Symbols are often placed in the surrounding scenery of a story to give it more than just a visual effect but also an indirect reference to a deeper meaning that can be interpreted. As seen in the title, symbolism is used throughout the short story, “Hills like White Elephants”. Ernest Hemingway’s use of symbolism along with the description of the setting helps to give a visual representation of the conflict between the American and the girl as their conversation continues on the subject of abortion. In the near beginning of the story, Jig, the girl, states that the far off hills “look like white elephants” (Charters 475).

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Carver’s opens his story with a brief, yet detailed imagery describing the weather and comparing it to what’s going on with the family inside. “Early that day the

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