Research Paper on:
Hemingway & Tan/Point of View

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
at similar objectives. A central issue in both short stories is a contest of wills. Hemingway dramatizes this by having his narrative voice simply observe a conversation at a train  station. The reader has to surmise the situation and the motivations of the characters simply from their dialogue. Tan takes a more focused perspective and tells her story from the  point of view of one of the participants, Waverly Jong. Therefore, Waverlys motivations are explicit and the reader has to surmise the motivations of Waverlys mother. However, in each case,  the principal issue is who will have control. Hills opens with the principal characters waiting for a train to Barcelona. Jig, a young woman, is waiting with her lover  who remains unnamed. The hills across the valley of the Ebro are "long and white" and remind Jig of "white elephants" (Hemingway 211). The couples conversation reveals that Jig is  carrying a "white elephant," that is, a baby that the man does not want. The phrase "white elephant" can refer to something that is valued, such as the way that  white elephants are venerated in Southeast Asia. But, also, it can also refer to something of dubious or limited value and it is this position that the man takes, as  he urges Jig to have an abortion. Despite the fact that the man repeatedly says that he does not want Jig to do anything that she does not want  to do, it is clear that he wants to convince her to have the abortion and to view it in the same way that he does. Jig, on the other  hand, sees it as something that she is doing for him. Her main objective is to have their relationship as it once was, which implies that it has changed. She