Abortion and Necrophilia

Daniel J. Neumann

Professor Harris (Literary Criticism)

Hemingway, Faulkner Application

October 14^th, 2009

Abortion, Necrophilia

            Hemingway never mentions the controversial operation the Hills Look Like White Elephants discusses, but the best-fit seems to be an abortion. The couple travels to Mexico for the surgery, so that the man may continue traveling the world, to “look at things and try new drinks.” The man feels guilty that the maintenance of his self-interest sacrifices an unborn life and depresses his lover, so he claims he doesn’t want her to go through with it if she doesn’t want to. But it’s not up to the woman. Her livelihood depends on her source of income, the male, and if she doesn’t get the abortion, he will leave. He says they will have everything after the operation. She counters this argument with the obvious loss of the infant. The man encourages her to drink more alcohol, and the quote from the woman, “Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe,” alludes to an abuse of maternity (since Absinthe causes still-birth). Licorice, a bitter taste, symbolizes the fetal death.

            Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily depicts an elderly recluse who seems harmless (albeit stinky) at first, but later the story develops to show that she slept with dead people, and probably poisoned a man. The signifying chain describing Emily’s behavior follows from someone to feel sorry for, to a reeking pest or annoyance, to a murderer into necrophilia. The drastic evolution of identity represents the ambiguity of space and time. Not only do some symbols have multiple definitions (in space), but also those definitions grow to alter into something completely different (in time). The town goes from Confederacy under Coronal Sartoris (which exempt her taxes and legalizes racial discrimination) to the newer generation (which demand her taxes and think Emily smells bad).

            Feminism borrows from post-structuralism’s binary relationships (man over woman) and Marxism’s class struggles (again, man over woman) to explain Hills Like White Elephants as a story of oppression and insincerity. The woman depends on the man; the infant depends on the woman. The man feels guilty enough to deny that it was his idea to get the abortion, but still pressures her by consoling, “I know it’s perfectly simple” and that it’s “for the best.” Deconstruction sees A Rose for Emily as a point on uncertainty. What we think we know about someone is likely to change—even if that person resists change so much as to still own a slave and never go out in public. Both short stories allow much room for interpretation, without neat, all-encompassing closure. After all, the reader never truly knows that the woman will get the abortion or not (or even if they’re planning an abortion); and the reader never determines why Emily kept Homer Barron.