"Hills like White Elephants"

My view of "Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway seems to be completely different than what everyone else says. After reading it once I looked up some things online and found out it was about an abortion. However, the entire time I read I took the operation as a sex change operation. I know many will disagree with me on this, but I feel as if “Jig” or the young girl is actually a young man with very feminine features.

I believe that the man in the story happened to fall in love with Jig while traveling through Spain. Through a recent encounter the man found out that Jig himself was a man. This has put the couple in a troubling situation. With the love they share and neither sure what to do the man wants Jig to have a sex change. Bare with me here, I know you’re thinking I’m crazy but even when the man says “I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.” Sure I understand how that can relate to an abortion but I feel as if it can also relate to a sex change. Over all I feel as if this is a tragic love story. My only problem is how willing Jig is to give in. The man truly loves Jig, and feels it will make their relationship better, however Jig dosent really want to do it. The only reason Jig does goes along with it is because he/she believes it is the only way he/she can be with the man “But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine”.

I’m sure many of you still think I’m crazy and I do see how it is written about an abortion, but I also see many similarities for a sex change. Either way it was an ok story, I wish there was more depth to it. Yes, it got the point across in just a few words, but I wanted to know some more background information on the characters. Hopefully some of you will read this and understand my point of view and even draw some of your own conclusions in order to decipher exactly what this story is about.

"The Lady with a Dog"

In "The Lady with a Dog" Chekhov attempts to show the complicity of love through a story of temptation. Although this story was rather enjoyable, I believe it fell far short of accurately portraying the meaning of love. It seems as if Chekhov wants the readers to feel sympathy for Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, in which I have none to offer him. In my mind the real lady of the story is Gurov's wife and Gurov himself is the dog. "Every fresh intimacy, while at first introducing such pleasant variety into everyday life, and offering itself as a charming, light adventure, inevitably developed, among decent people, into a problem of excessive complication leading to an intolerably irksome situation." Gurov is nothing more than a coward. At my age I might not know the most about love, but I do know that when things get tough and a complication arises in a relationship, you don't just move on to another one. It is crucial to fight for that relationship and maintain the love and admiration that was once there. Through this journey of fighting, the realization of true love becomes evident. I believe it is only a matter of time before Anna does something that Gurov doesn't like, and he leaves her too.

At the same time Gurovs inability to truly love isn't completely his fault. "Woman had always believed him indifferent from what he really was, had loved in him not himself but the man their imagination pictured him, a man they had sought for eagerly all their lives" The woman of Gurovs past had been looking for their fairy tale, and when they found out he wasn't the man for them he was crushed. A series of these relationships is what causes Gurov to become the monster he is. It made Gurov believe that he has to be something he is not in order for woman to love him. This is what I believe is what is wrong with most relationships today, the inability to face reality. Both men and woman have an unrealistic view of what their spouse should be. Because of this, it causes both sexes to act as someone their not. However after many years their real side will come out and once the other discovers it, the outcome is disastrous. Overall I feel that if everyone will be themselves and let someone love them for who they truly are, that they will find their eternal happiness.