In yesterday’s class, we had lively group discussions about “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Cottagette.” Each group has a representative who will report on what the group discussed. It would be good to treat this like you are responding to the topic for a post, so 300 words minimum, sharing the ideas and linking them to passages from the readings. Choose the category Homework, plus Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and add any tags you find relevant.
Since there were 5 groups, there will be 5 posts, although two groups will have repeat-posters (thanks in advance for your enthusiasm), let’s all comment on these as we would do for the regular bi-weekly posts. Add your thoughts to a different group’s conversation, and add anything to your group’s discussion that you think needs to be added.
So we’re not overwhelmed with too many posts, let’s have 3 more posts about “Hills Like White Elephants,” “The Hunger Artist,” or “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn.” Questions to follow (I’ll update this later today, just wanted to be sure there are three students interested in posting). Please respond to this post if you are interested in being one of these three posters!
In my group we talked about the imbalance of power in the relationships we have read about. We focused on the specific relationship in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. You first see the character power shift in their initial description. The character’s names are never provided however, they are described as “the man and the girl”. This indicates an age difference since she is not a woman, this is a common imbalance of power an adult having an intimate relationship with someone younger. There are also examples of power imbalance shown through the dialog. The girl seem very coy and her youth is emphasized by the amount of questions she asks the man. “‘What should we drink?’ the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.‘It’s pretty hot,’ the man said. ‘Let’s drink beer.’” And with each question she seems to hope for validation from the man. Asking what to drink, asking if she could have another drink, as if she needs his permission to take any actions. She also asks about what will make him happy and what he wants, ignoring what she wants. She even admits ‘”I don’t care about me.'”, she is willing to go through with an untold thing that she had previously expressed a disinterest in just because she wanted to please him. We also talked about the relationships in “A Rose for Emily”, how her father was really possessive and abusive to her not allowing her to live to marry or live her life. In literature many men and women relationships are one sided and male dominated.
The dialogue is very interesting. You have to read it a couple of times to understand there’s an underlying argument going between the both about abortion. When it comes to the unbalance of power between the relationship, its through the dialogue itself that we understand the unfair exchange between the both. When the man speaks to the girl he tells her he loves her, and that he’s okay with whichever decision she wants. However, he completely negates what he says by insisting that its a simple procedure and that everything will be better once it’s done. There’s also a shift in the girl throughout the story, she comes to realize that he doesn’t truly love her. At first she may have come off as passive, but gradually she tells him to stop talking, which shows exhaustion and courage to have a voice.