This literary analysis will define the underlying ethnic biases of the “white patriarchal male” that is based on the short stories “Hills Like White Elephants” and ““Indian Camp” by Earnest Hemingway. Hemmingway’s biography provides a foundation for the racism and sexist behavior of privileged white males in the context of James Mellow’s description of Hemingway as a literary figure in the early part of the 20th century. The short story “Hills Like White Elephants” defines the casual and carefree attitude of a male that has impregnated a woman and demands that she get an abortion. This cavalier patriarchal attitude reveals the very same privileges of white males in society, as this also occurs in the doctor’s racist treatment of a Native
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For instance, Hemingway’s girlfriend, Martha, sought tog et him to stop drinking and being sexually promiscuous as a “literary way” of life, yet Hemingway responds with the misogynistic attributes of a sexist male figure: “I’ll show you, you conceited bitch. They’ll be reading my stuff long after the worms have finished with you” (Mellow 529). In this manner, the woman poses a threat to Hemingway’s career, which reflects his own misogynistic view of women as being materialistic and greedy: “women are indelibly linked with the economic consciousness” (Koch 158). This aspect of womanhood is found in “Hills Like White Elephants” that tells the story of a woman that has become impregnated by the sexist male narrator of the story. The male narrator wants Jig to be an abortion, and Jig realizes his power as a white patriarchal male …show more content…
The same callous and insensitive view of Native American woman defines the white privileged male doctor that operates on woman in order to remove a child from difficulties in the pregnancy. The white doctor does not view the Indian woman as a human being, but as a object of his own patriarchal power over women: “That’s one for the medical journal George,” He said, “Doing a Caesarian with a jackknife and sewing it up with a nine-foot, tapered gut leaders.” (Hemingway “Indian Camp” para.16). In Tyler’s (2006) article, the lack of compassion for the woman belies race and sexist issues for the privileged white doctor: “He could conceivably have been sympathetic to her pain without allowing it to distract him from the medical necessity of operating to try to save both her and her child” (Tyler 46). In this context, Hemingway is reflecting on his own father’s role as a doctor for local Ojibwa Indians and the prejudices that he took after meeting them: “he did look at them with the expectable prejudices…as shiftless, sly, hard-drinking, and ingratiatingly immoral” (Mellow 29). In this context, the lack of humanity for the Indian being operated on by the white doctor ddefines some of the prejudices that he carried within a racially motivated point of view of a white doctor. These are important aspects of the racial and sexist aspects
For instance, Hemingway’s girlfriend, Martha, sought tog et him to stop drinking and being sexually promiscuous as a “literary way” of life, yet Hemingway responds with the misogynistic attributes of a sexist male figure: “I’ll show you, you conceited bitch. They’ll be reading my stuff long after the worms have finished with you” (Mellow 529). In this manner, the woman poses a threat to Hemingway’s career, which reflects his own misogynistic view of women as being materialistic and greedy: “women are indelibly linked with the economic consciousness” (Koch 158). This aspect of womanhood is found in “Hills Like White Elephants” that tells the story of a woman that has become impregnated by the sexist male narrator of the story. The male narrator wants Jig to be an abortion, and Jig realizes his power as a white patriarchal male …show more content…
The same callous and insensitive view of Native American woman defines the white privileged male doctor that operates on woman in order to remove a child from difficulties in the pregnancy. The white doctor does not view the Indian woman as a human being, but as a object of his own patriarchal power over women: “That’s one for the medical journal George,” He said, “Doing a Caesarian with a jackknife and sewing it up with a nine-foot, tapered gut leaders.” (Hemingway “Indian Camp” para.16). In Tyler’s (2006) article, the lack of compassion for the woman belies race and sexist issues for the privileged white doctor: “He could conceivably have been sympathetic to her pain without allowing it to distract him from the medical necessity of operating to try to save both her and her child” (Tyler 46). In this context, Hemingway is reflecting on his own father’s role as a doctor for local Ojibwa Indians and the prejudices that he took after meeting them: “he did look at them with the expectable prejudices…as shiftless, sly, hard-drinking, and ingratiatingly immoral” (Mellow 29). In this context, the lack of humanity for the Indian being operated on by the white doctor ddefines some of the prejudices that he carried within a racially motivated point of view of a white doctor. These are important aspects of the racial and sexist aspects