Hills Like White Elephants

Hills Like White Elephants

 In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, (link) we can simply tell how the man is forcing the women to have an abortion. The woman does not really want to do it, but she will do it because she does not want to disappoint the man. She is afraid that if she does not do it, the man will probably dump her and look for a different person. The man pretends to care, yet it can be seen by the way the narrator describes the story that he really wants her to do it. He knows that having a baby will bring lots of responsibilities and will not allow him to live a crazy life. This can be described when he says they can have and do everything they want as they did back in  the day.

This is a clear example of real life. Nowadays, people engage in relationships with the wrong person. At the beginning of the relationship everything is just perfect and romantic.  Men behave so well to women; they promise they would move heaven and earth for them.  So do women, they are very faithful and good to men. Because of the love story they supposedly live, they get into sexual activity without the use of effective contraception. This leads to an unintended pregnancy. In comparison to the the man in the story, either part of the relationship decides that abortion is the best option to make things as they were in the past. But what would happen if the other part does not feel that abortion is the right decision to make? In most cases, they decide to do it because they want to satisfy the other person. Perhaps they are just as afraid as the woman in the story to do what they feel that is right because they might end up being alone. I personally think that people should not have to do things they do not want to in life. It does not really matter what happens at the end because people who really love you, would be with you in good and bad times. Therefore, it is better to let go people who are not an asset to your life. It would be certainly harmful at first, but it would be definitely worthy at the end.

Reflection on Cathedral by Raymond Carver

Cathedral

Prior to the reflection, there is need to provide a brief summary of this wonderful short story.

Robert, who is blind, went to visit his wife’s family after her death. As the narrator’s wife lived nearby the place Robert was going to, he decided to visit her as well. She worked for him in the past; they always kept in touch by sending tapes to each other about their lives. Because of the good friendship Robert had with the narrator’s wife, the narrator felt jealous and upset once he realized that Robert was going to his house. He discriminated him by calling him “the blind man”, and he also judged him based on his disability. All in all, he was being a jerk when talking about him. Fast forward to the night where Robert gets to the house, the narrator was impressed by the appearance of “the blind man”. He had a long bear and was not wearing glasses as he thought. As the night was passing by, the narrator got even more impressed by Robert. Despite his disability, Robert drank, smoke, and could even tell that TV they were watching was one in color. By the end of the night, the image of a cathedral was on TV, so Robert asked the narrator to describe it for him. The narrator had a hard time describing it, hence, Robert asked him to draw it.  Robert puts his hand on the narrator’s hand in order to guide him when drawing.  Later, Robert asked the narrator to close his eyes to finish the drawing. At the end, Robert told him to open his eyes to look at the drawing, but the narrator just said “it’s really something” without opening his eyes.

I felt really related to this story after I read it; it reminded me of a similar experience I had in the past.

 Most of the time, we judge people without even getting to know them. On my first day of high school, there was this guy whose name was Axel. He looked pretty different from the rest of the class. I did not like him because I thought he was very arrogant and cocky. Every time any of my classmates asked me about him, I would describe him as the worst person I had ever seen in my life. I was being mean and rude towards him just like the narrator of “Cathedral” was being with the blind man. Likewise, the narrator, I had built my own opinion about this guy. Little did I know I would become best friend with him. By the end of the first month, our teacher left an assignment to be worked in groups. To my surprise, I was assigned to work with Axel. The first time we reunited to start working on the project, I was being really hostile to him. As we kept on reuniting to make progress in our work, I realized that Axel was a totally different person from what I thought when I first saw him.  I was surprised by the good qualities he had. He was kind, intelligent, humble, and he had similar interests to mine. Surprisingly, we ended up creating a strong bond and being good friends. Up to now, we keep on having a great friendship. This little story of mine reminds me on how antagonistic the narrator was with Robert at first, and how they ended up having a good time that they even drew a Cathedral together.

Rock-a-bye baby!

Rock-a-bye, baby, (link)

In the tree top!

When the wind blows,

The cradle will rock.

When the bough breaks,

The cradle will fall;

Down will come baby,

Cradle and all.

In our class discussion, we came to the conclusion that  despite being a beautiful lullaby, this poem can be interpreted in different ways.

It can describe how problematic nature and the real world is  in the course of life.

In our early years, life is very comforting because there is nothing better than being a baby. Our parents spoil us, and they protect us from everything. We have no concerns or responsibilities to care about in our childhood. As years are passing by, we become more and more independent. We start experiencing  new things on our own, and we get less support from our parents. Later, we realize that life is not easy if they are not there to do everything for us. Eventually, there comes a time when we have to face the world alone. We undergo difficult moments such as disappointments, failures, and hardships that make us fall down. It would be up to us whether we decide to stand up to move forward or to remain down without making progress.

 We also learned that it can depict how high things can come down as well.

Money and power are two things in life that people really desire. People who are either rich or powerful live a baby life. They can get many things others cannot get which leads to lots of envy in the world. As a result, people would try to knock these privileged people down in order to obtain what they have. It is them when the huge fight for money and power starts. Sadly, this fight will not stop unless someone is defeated and falls on the ground.

Moreover, this poem might represent drug addictions.

Most of the time, when people are going through harsh moments in life, they seek refuge in drugs. By doing so, they feel like all of their problems disappear just like being high on top of a tree.  What they don’t know is that the wind would blow again because they cannot escape from reality. Using drugs would rock the cradle they have sought refuge at even more. Problems would turn into something worse, and they will lead  people to their own fall in life.