How is Luz portrayed in comparison with Jig?

In order to explain how Ernest Hemingway portrays Luz in comparison with Jig, I analyze his two stories "A Very Short Story" and "Hills Like White Elephants" respectively.

Luz is a World War I nurse who falls in love with a soldier while she tends him over the course of three months in a hospital. She agrees to marry him, but after the soldier returns home to the America, Luz writes a letter to him saying that she has fallen in love with an officer and that she will marry him the next summer. She also describes the love of the soldier and her self as a love of “a boy and a girl”. We can see that Luz is in power letting the soldier down. Later, she writes to the soldier that the officer did not marry her after all, but now the soldier ignores her. In this manner, she first was in power over the soldier, but eventually he dumped her. I believe Hemingway wants to convey to the reader that playing with a man’s love can be costly. In my opinion, Hemingway portrays Luz a simple and a bit loose and relentless to her soldier-boyfriend, and hence, she gets more attention from the soldier than she deserved.

On the other hand, creating the character Jig, I believe Hemingway wants to convey to the reader that women not always get the attention and the respect they deserve in a relationship with men and the complexity of a woman’s mind. Jig is in a relationship with an egocentric man; who does not understand her need for love, respect, and attention. This may reflect that the author wants to convey to the reader that women may be important in men’s lives, but that men tend not to give them the attention and respect they deserve. This can bear resemblance to the more recent James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome’s well known song “This is a man’s world” claiming that “This is a man’s world, but it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl (Wikipedia 2011a).” An example of this maltreatment is when the American man in “Hills Like White Elephants”, ignores the fact that people have died from abortion surgeries and oversimplifying it by telling the girl “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig”, in order to get his will. He cunningly tries to manipulate the girl to undertake an abortion six times before the girl vehemently responds, “Would you please, please, please, please, please, please, please stop talking?” She says “Please” seven times, which is one time more than the man has tried to convince her to have an abortion. This may illustrate that Hemingway wants the reader to realize that the girl is capable and willing to decide for herself what to do with the fetus. Relentlessly, the man continues by saying “But I don’t want you to” and “I don’t care anything about it”, which illustrates that he neither listen to, nor respect the girl.

Hemingway portrays Jig as being dependent of and dominated by her man. One example of this dependence is; despite the fact that the Jig and the American man in the “Hills Like White Elephants” have been traveling a lot, she does not understand the Spanish-speaking woman, and therefore has to ask the American “What did she say?” In contrast, Luz wanted to stay in Spain and was economically and socially independent of the soldier setting up a new hospital.

Hemingway portrays Jig as the protagonist and as a round character that develops during the story, while Luz is flat and the antagonist in “A very short story”. In “Hills Like White Elephants”, Jig develops from being the girl who asks the man all the questions to becoming the girl who provides the man with all the answers. In contrast, Luz is eventually turned down by her former love, the soldier.

To summarize, in “Hills Like White Elephants”, Jig is empowering her self standing up for her rights while Luz looses her power as she is turned down of both the officer and the soldier.


References:
Hemingway, Ernest. “A Very Short Story”. Handed out in class.

Rock, Claudia and Suneeti Phadke. 2007. Style and substance, 2nd edition, ÉDITIONS DU RENOUVEAU PÉDAGOGIQUE INC., Canada.

Wikipedia.2011. Available from URL: . Downloaded September 27, 2011.

My reflections about the movie "Being There"

Please follow the link and start the video so you have the right background music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJwbwWg8uc, then read my blog...

The Hal Ashby directed movie “Being There” (1979), based on the 1971 novella written by Jerzy Kosinski, looks at the difference between perception and reality. The plot is really about how Chance, by just listening, nodding and smiling, is being misunderstood by people who eventually makes him a candidate for the president election. His name, Chance, may even reflect the fact that chance means luck, and that Chance comes far by simply just “Being There” at the right time and place, just as the title suggests.

When Chance is evicted from his home, the music playing in the background is a jazzed up version of the opening of Richard Strauss’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” This music has lately been used in several productions to symbolize a new life, a new product, or that something big is happening in for example TV-commercials. The music piece was generally known as the theme music in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Nevertheless, the music piece is actually referring to the fictionized prophet, Zarathustra, descending from his mountain retreat to mankind. In the case of “Being There”, I believe the music piece reflects Chance entering the reality, his new life outside his home and his isolated garden. The music is originating from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietze’s philosophical novel “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” It deals, among other things, with “eternal recurrence of the same” (Wikipedia 2011). In “Being There”, Chance is met with “I see” and “I understand” very many times talking to other persons. This is a recurrence of words and eventually misunderstandings.

It seems like Hal Ashby was inspired by this novel as he used several cues from the bible in ironic ways just like Nietze, making Chance walk on the water, the garden and the gardener symbolizing paradise and God, “the room upstairs” symbolizing heaven etc.. In Nietze’s novel, a central irony of the text is that Nietze mimics the style of the Bible in order to present ideas, which fundamentally oppose Christian and Jewish morality and tradition. Zarathustra’s roundelay was sat as part of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony in 1895-6 with the original title “What man tells me”. I find this is very ironic as this is really the essence of the movie. What is it that really is being said? And what are the pre-conceptions of the people surrounding Chance?

In the movie, I believe Chance is better off than most people he meets without having their pre-conceptions about ethics and morals. His lack of these societal denominators makes him do strange things simply because he does not know how to behave or respond. I think that this attribute eventually will be discovered, and that he will end up worse than the people around him. For instance, at the end of the movie Dr. Robert Allenby says to Chance, “you really are a gardener, aren’t you?” This may indicate that the doctor finally understands Chance direct and childish way of acting and loses some of the respect for him. He is no longer creating a finer and more developed perception of Chance than the reality.

Nevertheless, I think this is a nice story that tells us that one may come far with listening and smiling, but also that one should be aware of one’s pre-conceptions as they may not correspond with the reality.

Christopher and the Grizzlies

Hi.
Here is a picture taken of my boyfriend, Christopher, on the top of Grouse Mountain, in North Vancouver. Back home in Norway, he nickname among friends is actually "Bjoenn", which means bear. Nevertheless, this picture shows how big these bears are compared to Christopher who is almost 2 meters high... This spring I went to a bear hunting course in order to become a licensed bear hunter. In the course I learned about the biology of bears and had to shoot on bear blinks. The latter was quite difficult because the area in which to point for a lethal hit is very small and the blinks was sometimes moving. On the most difficult blink, I had to shoot four lethal shots within 4 seconds (including the time you need to reload the weapon). Eventually, I managed well and was actually interviewed by the local newspaper as there are very few certified female bear hunters in Norway.

I have a huge respect for these animals, and having the ability to hunt bears does not necessarily mean that I ever will. Nevertheless, it is nice to know what to do if I should meet a bear training my dog in the Canadian woods.

What writing means to me

I enjoy writing, but compared to many of my friends, I will probably write less nonsense on facebook and blogs. My boyfriend, Christopher, and I created a blog in order for our families, friends and colleagues to be able to follow us while we are here in Canada. If you are interested in more information, you may look up our blog on http://chrisbjoenness@blogspot.com.

I do not keep a diary, but I sometimes post small accomplishments on facebook like "Yeah, I hiked to the peak of Mount Seymour (1500 m high)". Writing in social media makes me overcome the challenge with 9 hours time difference to Norway. In this manner, people who care about me and are interested in my life may follow me on Blogger.com and on facebook.

About me

Hi.
My name is Henriette Eggen. I am a 27 years old Norwegian girl who lives in Vancouver. This fall I study English at the English Language Institute (ELI) at the Unniveristy of British Columbia in order to improve my reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. I believe fluency in English will help me succeed in business.

My personal interests are hunting, dog training, scuba diving, horseback riding, mountain hiking, cycling, listen to music and reading.

I have a boyfriend named Christopher and a gordon setter named Gordon Royal. You can see my blog at http://chrisbjoenness.blogspot.com for more information (in Norwegian) and pictures we have taken during our stay here in Vancouver.

If you want to get in touch with me, please look me up at facebook. Henriette Eggen is my username.

Have a nice day!

Regards

Henriette