"Hills LIke White Elephants" Hemingway

In this piece, there is so much tension between the couple. While I was reading it, I was uneasy throughout because the words exchanged were curt and cold. It seemed like they were holding onto a relationship that was dying out, and their conversation was vague to me.  He kept referring to an operation which she didn’t want to go through with. I felt as though he was trying to convince her to see through the operation, which was the main reason for their failing relationship. There were subtle connotations that I picked up on that made it seem as though this operation was referring to an abortion. This was especially emphasized on  when he says “I don't want anyone but you. I don’t want anyone else.” It almost seemed like whatever they were discussing about, possibly the baby was an obstacle in their lives. The American man also seemed like he was not ready to settle down and take life seriously and take responsibility. He appeared to still want to see more of the world, live on the edge and live a carefree life that now seemed impossible if she didn't go through with the operation. I also found it interesting how the two seem to want very different things. She probably wants to keep the child or settle down where as he is still looking for adventure. A dialogue that stuck with me was when he was talking about how they can have everything and the whole world and she disagrees and says that it isn’t theirs anymore. It is almost like she has accepted the fact that adventure and in transit lives are no longer for them. She instead thinks they need more stability. He on the other hand still believes that they are not yet ready and haven’t yet lived their lives. There is a sharp contrast between the two desires, creating the tension.

Hills Like White Elephants

The conversation where the two characters are disagreeing with one another stood out the most to me.  In a way, the dialogue in this particular area reminded me of the song "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay.  Most likely, there is no direct correlation.  The female character stated that they could have the world, whereas the male character stated that the world was theirs in the beginning but it was taken away.  In a sense, he might be saying that it's time to move on, whereas she wants to dream something that potentially will never happen.

The Several Blessings of Wang Ta-nien

I find this piece very helpful for reference in our next assignment, as it follows a similar structure. It begins describing a setting and this particular setting does its part to characterizes some of the players, namely Ta-nien. When the dialogue is introduced these indirect descriptive characterizations are challenged by more direct characterization by way of the players' interactions with one another. Ta-nien becomes less grounded to the audience when we learn more about him than his rigorous morning routine and compare these new ideas, of having an income from a fish pond, with those we previously held.
Additionally, we have more than one interaction to view him in, and therefore more than one lens. We can see him through the eyes of his irritated wife, his friend the Sage, and his son. All of these work to give us a better rounded idea of who Ta-nien is without devoting three dull paragraphs of analysis to him.
It also lets the reader interpret the evidence given to them, allowing them to have agency in their understanding of the story, rather than forcing the character down their throats in black and white.

The Hills Like White Elephants_ relationship complexities

I believe that the common thought of The Hills Like White Elephants is that this couple is awkwardly dancing around the topic of The Girl having an abortion. The way that the couple skirts the topic directly, makes their dialog challenging to decipher. However important the discussion of the abortion is, if you can really call it a discussion, the underlying theme is obviously a lack of stability and comfort within their relationship. The relationship feels forced, lonely, and empty throughout their dialog. “What is keeping this couple together?” kept running through my head. No doubt relationships are not always “on” 100% of the time, sometimes no one has anything to say and that’s okay, but forced conversation made this couple seem as though they were on an awkward first date, not in a committed relationship. The dialog expressed no love even when they talk of love, and loving each other, those words seem to hold no weight, no real meaning.

It made me really sad reading this and thinking about the complexities of human relationships. Why do people do this to themselves? The Girl and the American seemed so miserable, but neither seemed to care enough about themselves to do anything about it. Why do people do this. Why stay together if there is nothing there to keep you together. The American and the Girl were trying and failing at communicating about the only thing that could hold them together, the unborn. My heart broke for both of these characters. At the end, no one has anything.

Differing Narratives in "No One's A Mystery" and "White Elephant Hills"

Both "No One's a Mystery" and "White Elephant Hills" contain multiple layers of narrative and characterizations as the two characters of each story have their own narratives that the other character then attempts to override or control.
    The parallels of these stories are striking, which is why I think talking about both them does a lot to highlight the power dynamic that may or may not be inherently a part of dialogue.  Both stories have an older man and a younger girl.  The female characters' will does not originally agree with that of the male love interest.  These men then attempt to "rewrite" or re-narrate the female character's dialogue.  This can be seen in "White Elephant Hills" when the girl is worried about how their relationship could return to what it was before their pregnancy and feels hopeless, the man responds, "You mustn't feel that way".  In "No One's a Mystery", Jack tells the girl, "Tonight you'll write...In a year you'll write...In two years you'll write."  While she disagrees with him, the dialogue is a necessary part of showing how these two narratives interact, with one eventually subsuming the other.  This tension can only be shown in dialogue.  It is so impressive that both Tallent and Hemingway are able to convey so much in terms of characterization and the relationship dynamics using such natural language.

    Dialogue is able to show characters and their personalities in a way that setting, description, or monologue, can't.   Having the characters themselves show the reader who they are within a relationship is so much more realistic than having a narrator simply tell them. This is something that in my own writing I have been really challenged by because it has been hard to keep the dialogue at once realistic (like we see in "White Elephant Hills" and in "No One's a Mystery") and multi-faceted.

Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway

This piece was beautifully paced, every sentence a slow build to the final revelation. While subtly built and seemly simple, a second or third read reveals some of the strategies used to create the main conflict of the piece-- the realization of mortality and the struggle of a parent trying to protect their child from this harsh reality.

When we were asked to write a dialogue for this class, my first thought was of a child grappling with this exact issue, asking seemingly endless inquiries to try to understand death. But it is a difficult enough thing to try to process ourselves, without trying to explain to someone else. Sure, we all know that at some point, we will all die. But how many of us, especially as college students who, statistically, have more than half our lives ahead of us, have really thought about and processed this fact? In trying to grapple with this issue myself, I found it impossible to try to explain it through the eyes of a parent to their child, not only dealing with issue of their own demise but that of their child, something no parent would want to contemplate. In reading Hemingway's dialogue, however, I saw that problem of trying to protect and comfort, yet still address the issue at hand, and found it much more compelling than anything I had managed to think of. That moment, and the thoughts of the child afterwards, were my favorite parts of the piece, both for the struggle and the realism of the struggle.

"No One's A Mystery" Elizabeth Tallent

I really enjoyed this piece because of the clear contrast between the wants of the two characters, which is the heart of the conflict. There was a clear distinction in their age and mentality that posed a challenge.  The author represented the older man as being more realistic and he conveyed that through his speech. One of my favourite lines was when he said “her breath would smell like your milk, and its kind of a bittersweet smell, if you want to know the truth.” This captured his maturity and understanding that only comes with age, as well as subtly conveying to us that he is already a father. In stark contrast is the younger girl’s thoughts. She is looking for something serious in this relationship as shown by her hopes for the relationship. Her lines, “her breath smells like vanilla and her eyes are just Jacks colour of blue,” is a clear example of the future she sees for them, and it also further reveals her innocence. They are two characters with two very different motives. I thought that the author did an excellent job in capturing the essence of the conflict through dialogue. An example is when he says “I like yours, but I believe mine,” referring to the story that will be written. Although the conflict between the two is present throughout the piece it is brought out explicitly in a few sentences such as the one mentioned earlier. This is a good tool because it has a greater effect on the statement made by the characters and it reaffirms the conflict.