Similar Ideas In "The Story Of An Hour" And "Hills Like White Elephants"
How Motivation Drives a Story
“The Story of an Hour” is a story that was set in the late 19th century. Kate Chopin, the author, uses literary elements imagery, irony, and, metaphors to present an often unheard view of marriage. Mrs mallard is the main protagonist of the story. Mainly because she was destined to get out of her marriage. Also, “Hills Like White Elephants”, is a story that was written in the year 1927, by Ernest Hemingway. The author uses setting and imagery to make the story more appealing to the reader. This story has two main characters, Jig the female character who is also the protagaist and “The American” as the male character. They are two travelers who are in Spain traveling from city to city. The authors of these two stories use literary elements to enhance the theme of the stories so they can make the stories more appealing to their readers.
The Story of an Hour started in a rather sad way. “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin) Mrs. Mallard had to deal with the issues of her dead husband, but she handled it in a rather strange way. Mrs. Mallard seems to be more excited about her husband's death than ……josphine, the sister of Mrs. Mallard has to break the devastating news to her about her husband’s death. Josephine has to slowly and vaguely break the bad news. Upon receiving the bad news, she started sobbing and grieving and goes to her room to be alone. While Mrs. Mallard was by herself she used that time to start to think about how different how life would be. As she was in the room the author uses imagery and metaphor to pull the audience to see and feel what Mrs. Mallard was going through. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver the new spring life” (Chopin). By saying “the open square” that shows that she was looking through a window at the outside world seeing life carrying on even though she feels trapped. Also while she was in the room she whispered, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin). Mrs. Mallard seems to be more happy than sad about her husband’s death. Because of the fact, it was the year eighteen ninety four, that means the man actually controlled everything in the household and Mrs. Mallard wanted to be free and because her husband was dead it actually motivated her to start thinking about how her new life will now be since she’s now free. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease -- of joy that kills” (Chopin). At this point, the irony of this is that Mrs. Mallard wanted to live her life the new way because she’s happy about her husband’s death, and because of her heart condition she was startled.
“The Hills Like White Elephant” is about a young couple and the issue of abortion. Even though the author did not mention anything about abortion, but the author vaguely made it clear that jig did. The story mainly revolves around Jig because the story is based on her actions and revolves around her decisions to either have or not to have the abortion. The story is called hills like white elephants. The author uses this name not only because of a name but it has a deeper meaning to it. A “White Elephants” means something a person have and wants to get rid of it. “The Hills” would represent struggles. The hills like white elephants mean that the main character has struggles that she wants to get rid of. Also, the first paragraph states that,
“The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side, there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station, there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies (Hemingway).
This quote is used as a metaphor, it is used to show where Jig is in her life. The railroads would represent the path she should take in her life. The side with no shade and no trees is used to represent how her life would be if she keeps the baby, alone, and with no one around her. The other side with the warm shadow of the building and a curtain would represent “The America” stinking around with her. The warm shadow of the building would be “The American” being in love with her and keeping her warm. The curtain is “The American” protecting her from the outside world. Jig was stuck in the middle of these two decisions and one could affect her life negatively and the other could be positive. Because of the fact that Jig loves “The American,” she was deeply motivated by the decision that she didn’t want to lose what she have at the moment.
The authors of these two stories use motivation to drive each central character of the stories. Mrs. Mallard was motivated due to her idea of her husband's death. Because of his death, she felt the urge to carry on with her life because she was forgetting who she really is. The story of hills like white elephant, jig was driving by the fact that she’s didn’t want to lose “The American” and because of the lifestyle they life she was motivated to have the abortion because she didn’t want to lose “The American” and he didn’t want to lose his freedom to taking care of a baby.
These two stories can be put together as one mainly because both stories central characters are driven by the need to go after something. “The story of an Hour” was driven by the fact that Mrs. Mallard wanted freedom. Mainly because she wanted freedom from her trapped life of being married. However, in “Hills like White Elephants” Jig decision was motivated by “The American”. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, so she decided to have an abortion.
