Good People By Ernest Hemingway Analysis

Abortion has been a big topic to talk about all around the world. Throughout the decades it has become easier to speak about in society. Although it has become easier to speak about there are still many people who are against abortion for many reasons such as their faiths and values. Till this day there are many people still trying to ban abortion. “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “Good People” by Davide Foster Wallace both take place in different time periods, “Hills Like White Elephants”, by Ernest Hemingway was written In in August 1927 and “Good People”, by David Foster Wallace was published on February 2007. Both short stories are about a man trying to have their girlfriend go through with an abortion. However, not …show more content…
The story begins with the description of the setting. “They were up on a picnic table at that park by the lake, by the edge of the lake, with part of a downed tree in the shallows half hidden by the bank.”(Wallace). We also get introduced to both characters Lane A. Dean, Jr. and his Girlfriend. By the scene, we can see its a peaceful, quiet scene with no one around. The man is nineteen years old and the woman is twenty years old. We can just imagine how difficult this situation must be for both, especially the woman. Religious is a big part of this story because the couple is Christians. Christian people are really against abortion; it is against their values and beliefs for someone to have an abortion. The writer said, “He was starting to believe that he might not be serious in his faith. He might be somewhat of a hypocrite, like the Assyrians in Isaiah, which would be a far graver sin than the appointment”(wallece). He felt guilty for going against the values and beliefs his religion believes in. It was difficult for the man to tell the girl to go through with the appointment, because of his Religion. Even though, he knew it was strictly against his religion he was trying to make his girlfriend make the decision so he would not feel as guilty. If his girlfriend was the one to decide she would be the one to sin and not the man. It would also make …show more content…
There are to landscaped divided by a railroad and the girl has to choose what destination she wants. The destinations symbolize abortion or going through with her pregnancy. It symbolizes the outcome of the decision she makes. With all this pressure she had forty minutes until the train arrived to go to Madrid. When they began to drink, she tells the Man “s. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway) She’s having a difficult time decided what route to take. The girl described the line of hills as "They look like white elephants”(Hemingway). In the story, a white elephant symbolizes “ a white elephant is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness”(Dictionary). In history, if you were to own a white elephant the elephant had to have the best everything. This mean it had to have the best food fed, everything will add up and make it expensive to own. Because it was expensive to own wealthy people will lose all their money and have no wealth in the end. Although a baby can be precious and unique to have, the cost to support a baby can be hard to support. The girl had to decide if they were financially ready to go through with the pregnancy. However, the girl looks across at the hills again and said, “They're lovely hills…They don't really look like white elephants”(Hemingway). we can get a feeling of how she's overthinking her