Saturday, March 19, 2011

What are some examples of argumentative themes in "Hills Like White Elephants"?I am having trouble coming up with an argumentative thesis for this...

There can be many argumentative prompts to come out of the
work.  One significant one would be whether Hemingway's construction is in favor of
women's predicaments, against it, or refuses to give an answer to it.  The central idea
concerns the procedure for an abortion to which the woman displays resistance, but the
man displays support.  Is Hemingway trying to articulate the condition of women as one
that needs to be changed or is he content with what is there in terms of the dynamic
between women and men?  At the same time, I think that an argument can be made that
Hemingway might be trying to construct a situation as it is, outside of the realm of
judgments and assertions.  What makes his short story so phenomenal is that it seeks to
be a perfect recreation of what is as opposed to what should be, what might be due to
bias, or what can only be through human contingency.  The question that we are left with
which to wrestle is that if art does this, if art is able to render a perfect vision of
what is, does it actually embrace what is as opposed to seeking to change what is into
what should be?  At what point does art stop being a mirror and begin being a looking
glass?  At what point is this desirable or undesirable?  I think that Hemingway forces
all of these questions out of this short story.

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