Hills Like White Elephant Feminist Analysis

Will women ever be granted full equality? Given how much time American society has had to resolve this topic, it seems almost ludicrous that this question must be asked. But it must be asked. Though over a century has passed since the Modernist period, the struggle for gender equality is still a very real, ongoing battle. Progress has been made, however. This progress can be largely attributed to the women who subtly or explicitly endeavored to change the social constructs that defined the female gender role during the Modernist period. Many of these women were writers who explored the social norms of what American society allowed women to do, think, and feel, translated those norms onto for deliberate scrutiny, and some outright critiqued …show more content…
The short story’s main tension is founded on the unnamed man’s insistence that the young woman named Jig have an abortion, something she very explicitly does not want to discuss. Their interaction—from the way the way the man speaks patronizingly to Jig and how dismissive he is of her feelings—indicates who holds the power in not only relationships between men and women but also in society as a whole: men. This power is depicted by seemingly minor details such as his age advantage over her, shown through the diction used to describe them—he as “the man” and Jig only as “the girl” (Hemingway 1964). Moreover, however, this power stems from how American society is a patriarchy and how men dictate the worth and identities of all other groups. One example of this in is how the man is the one who names Jig; he determines her identity. The fact that he is referred to as “the man” rather than by a name indicates a certain universality: the majority of white, American men are those who held the authority in society and in relationships during this time period. This authority extends to even what a woman should do with her own body, seen in how the man continuously pressures her about the abortion despite her …show more content…
Looking at the amount of marriages Alice has had and the intentional pliability of her identity according to which man she is with, it can be inferred that Alice has no delusions about marriage: it is not scared; it is not about love. It is a business transaction to be utilized in order to gain security and increased social standing for herself and for her daughter. There is no room for error or naiveté in Alice’s ambitions because otherwise, society and public opinion would turn on her. Instead of sympathizing with Alice due to her carefully crafted persona, society would see her as this moneygrubber, this class ladder climber, someone manipulative and scheming—which, in a way, she is. However, considering the gender constraints and the social norms constraining women during this time, Alice really has no other choice. So she plays the game, and she does it