"Hills Like White Elephants" and "A Rose for Emily"

"Hills Like White Elephants" Discussion Question

When reading the story, I didn't get that they were talking about an abortion until the point of where they start talking about having a simple operation done and that he, Jig, knows that it is something simple and that he has known lots of people who have gone through with it. Jig makes the operation seem as though it really isn't much of anything though, making it seem simple and just something every women could go through or has gone through instead of making it seem as a big deal as it is with almost anyone. The girl in the story knows that it isn't going to be easy and that is going to have a great deal of emotion attached to the actions, should she go through with it in the end.

It isn't very surprising that it was written by a man because it seems to have that one dimension to it and that everything will be alright after the fact and that there is nothing to worry about. If it would have been written by a woman, or been in a woman's perspective, we would have had more of an emotional attachment to the child instead of seeing it as something that needed to be done in order to bring their lives to what it use to be.

"A Rose for Emily" Discussion Question

The time that this story is set in is very important because it shows the differences of what has changed throughout time since it was written. It also makes everything in the story a little more relevant since we know that the time period is way back in the early 1900's instead of present time. The wording alone in shows what a different time and place that the story was written in. If it would have been written in a different place, it would change everything because of the fact that Emily lives in a small tight knit community where everyone knows everyone and practically everything going on but had she lived in a city or somewhere were that wasn't the case, we wouldn't know what exactly has happened to her in her life and the perspectives of the others in the town. If it was set in a different time, for example closer to our time period right now, she probably wouldn't be living alone or have everyone of her neighbors know what is going on and she might not even have a guy who would do her shopping and chores for her.