Loss of Innocence

Harry Potter on yet another magical romp between the lines, let’s find a unicorn this time guys! Alright, in all seriousness(What did someone call for me?-Sirius Black), we’re gonna be looking at “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway this time around. Cool story about Hemingway, according to the world wide web, though it isn’t substantiated, he made a bet once that he could make a man cry in six words. And so the “Six-Word Story” was born. For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Now, if that doesn’t hit you hard I don’t know what will.(this is connected don’t worry just lemme work)

Anyway, it seems like babies are a favorite topic for our boy Hemingway since “Hills Like White Elephants” is also about a baby. Although, in this case, it isn’t particularly wanted; The story is about a couple dancing around the choice of whether or not they were going to abort their child. I would say the loss of innocence in this one is just the couple’s realization that they can’t always do what they want, they have responsibilities. I think this way because the impression that they gave me was a young(ish) couple wandering around Europe without a care in the world doing as the please, when they please. But then, suddenly, Jig is pregnant and now everything is horribly convoluted and they don’t know what to do or where to go. I feel that this dash of reality is a type of loss of innocence, I mean they were all carefree and happy and now look at them, they can barely keep a conversation going. So, basically, what I’m saying is that children ruin everything. Never, ever, ever have them, ever. Just kidding, I love kids(no, not really.). I think the...moral, I guess you could say, is that your actions have consequences and you have to take responsibility for them.

Another kind of loss of innocence in this is Jig’s and her seemingly, indifferent attitude towards the baby and herself. She doesn’t care about herself and was willing to go along with whatever her lover wanted. This is still the same type of innocence as above really but you just see how pronounced it is in Jig’s character. She is referred to as a “girl” throughout the story while her lover is a “man” not a boy, a man. I admit this has colored my perspective of the story and that is, partly, why I think this way. I think that Jig is so caught up in this romance with this older man that she’s willing to do anything to return to that carefree bliss that they were in. “And if i do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?” (Hemingway “Hills Like White Elephants” this quote accurately shows this point of view.

Okey-dokey, Harry signing off then.