Comparing Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway and The Husband' by Anton Chekhov
“When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you.” – George Saunders
Before starting this semester I didn't know much about short stories. Even if I knew or saw some I would just ignore it because I wasn't interested in them, because I didn't have read one and because I was thinking of them less knowledgeable than thick books. …..Poor me.) how narrow minded I was….. Just now after reading a few of them I have to admit that I was wrong and regret ignoring reading short but sweet stories before. Now I know that even though the story is short it can contain enormous and unique stories and have tremendous powerful messages to their readers. Mostly these short stories are also used as a voice, voice of society, voice of family, voice of issues which society wants to be heard by people. Not just be heard but listened and work on solutions/improvements.
The first few of the short stories I read were “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “The Husband'' by Anton Chekhov. They both are such great yet such sad stories: great because they both raise social issues of their timeline which is gender inequality, and sad because of the self-sacrifice to please your half.
There are a lot of similarities in these works. First of all, both stories are based on couples dialogues, dialogues where the reader can see and feel their uneasy and strained relationship, dialogue which is mostly one-sided, because female characters' voices are not voices and even not choices but just agreements to their spouses' speech/point.
The second similarity is male dominance in both stories. They are both middle aged, well-educated men: one graduated from university and the second character speaks in foreign languages, they both have decent jobs/incomes this way they can provide for their women, yet brutal and heartless toward them. Through the story we can see how selfish and controlling they are: both are “into the relationship” with their chosen ones but not supporting their halves, but forcing them to make a “his decision”.
The other similarities of these works are the weakness of women characters. They are both young, naive and pretty but not educated, because of which they both are helpless, indecisive, and depend on their halves. Through the story the reader can see how tension is rising between couples when female characters are disobeying or disapproving their halves point of views. At the end of stories both females are despondent and just silently agree to their males order which shows us the male dominance and gender roles in society.
In conclusion, both works are great pieces of literature where writers write about reality: unfair, hazy and bitter reality. Also these stories have a powerful and meaningful message to the generation: “Say Yes” to gender equality, “Say Yes” to free will, that “education doesn't choose gender” and you can be whoever you like to be, just “don't limit yourself”. Because of all these I fell in love with short stories, and would recommend everyone not to ignore the short stories but embrace and read them, they can be as rich and as interesting as the bestseller books/novels.
