Living in The Shadows
Since the beginning of time women have been presumed to hold certain titles such as “a good
housewife” and “supermom”. Expected to be exemplary mothers and wives while managing a
home, bringing up children, pleasing and answering to the requests of their husbands,
sometimes even having a full- time job. It’s no wonder how one can lose their self to all the
demands and wants of the people in their lives. The events in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An
Hour” and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” display how various women can suppress
and lose sight of their desires and even more themselves in a relationship.
Kate Chopin was a conditional housewife and mother of 6 until the death of her husband in
1822. The death of her husband …show more content…
There are so many women in relationships that feel this exact way. They feel alone and hope
that their partner can be enough to suffice and fill the emptiness but it doesn’t happen and
they end up slowly losing their desires, hopes, and dreams.
In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” despite the woman’s desire to have a baby she felt
that if her partner was happy with an abortion then she would be happy too. She says in the
story “if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me.” (Hills Like
White Elephants” p. 331) She knows deep down that things will not be as they were but
throughout the story, she continues to show she cares more about her partners wants even
saying in the story “I don’t care about me”. Each of the women in the stories lost their sense of
self, lost their voice, and either felt like they could not live their life until they were alone, or
felt like if their partner was happy then they too would be happy. “No matter how successful,
assertive, or powerful some women are, the moment they become involved with a man
Since the beginning of time women have been presumed to hold certain titles such as “a good
housewife” and “supermom”. Expected to be exemplary mothers and wives while managing a
home, bringing up children, pleasing and answering to the requests of their husbands,
sometimes even having a full- time job. It’s no wonder how one can lose their self to all the
demands and wants of the people in their lives. The events in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An
Hour” and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” display how various women can suppress
and lose sight of their desires and even more themselves in a relationship.
Kate Chopin was a conditional housewife and mother of 6 until the death of her husband in
1822. The death of her husband …show more content…
There are so many women in relationships that feel this exact way. They feel alone and hope
that their partner can be enough to suffice and fill the emptiness but it doesn’t happen and
they end up slowly losing their desires, hopes, and dreams.
In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” despite the woman’s desire to have a baby she felt
that if her partner was happy with an abortion then she would be happy too. She says in the
story “if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me.” (Hills Like
White Elephants” p. 331) She knows deep down that things will not be as they were but
throughout the story, she continues to show she cares more about her partners wants even
saying in the story “I don’t care about me”. Each of the women in the stories lost their sense of
self, lost their voice, and either felt like they could not live their life until they were alone, or
felt like if their partner was happy then they too would be happy. “No matter how successful,
assertive, or powerful some women are, the moment they become involved with a man