Analysis of Provision of stability by men in relationships

Both Raymond Carver’s ‘Cathedral’ and Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ help demonstrate the issues that are experienced by couples, and the role that the men take in helping their significant others feel supported in the cause of these disputes. The two writers choose outer elements to highlight the evolution of these two relationships, where each of the relationship has its problems and the normalcy directions that the couples should try and find a way to resolve the issues that they have. By analysing these two works, this essay tries to understand the issues that are faced by these two couples and the ability of the men in providing stability to their partners as an effort of turning things around in their relationships.

Right when the two stories begin, it is easy to notice the tension that is there between the couples. In the ‘Cathedral’, the narrator who is the husband is against hosting his wife’s blind male acquaintance, Robert into their home ‘’’The blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to’’ (Carver, p. 202). This visit by Robert into the narrator’s home causes tension between the couple since they are not in agreement about the visit. In the case of Hemingway’s work, it is not vividly clear at the beginning of the story but one can feel the tension between the American and his girl as they communicate. A good illustration of this is when the girl jokingly tells the American that he has never set eyes on a ‘white elephant’ and he becomes defensive arguing that ‘Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything’ (Hemmingway, p. 643).

When you try to analyse the men in these two works, it is clear that they all have a narrow, distorted view of the world and that urge and need to always be in control in every situation. It is this urge for power that has brought about the split that is there between these men and their partners. Both the authors of these works have created similar characters in that they are all insensitive to their partners most especially when they need them most. They are all selfish in that they do try to give their partners a chance to do what they want and they do this by not allowing room for open communication between them and their partners.

One similar factor that can be observed from the two stories is the issue of stability, and it is something that is lacking in the two relationships. In the first story, ‘Cathedral’, the wife of the narrator is in tremendous need of support right from the beginning, where she is urging the narrator to be supportive of the issue of Robert coming to visit her at home. She clearly states to the narrator that the choice to be supportive is his and it will all be dependent on how he feels about her. But it is also very clear that as a partner she really cares for the narrator and she promises that if the narrator was in her position, she would fully support him (Carver, p. 438). Through this argument by the wife, it help to illustrate the unequal emotional investment between the partners, otherwise the wife would not really need to make such a conversation just to convince him if their marriage was really secure (Facknitz & Mark, P. 287).

Much of the narrator’s contemporary life is given by Carver while the wife’s former life is given more than her present life and it is through this that information about suicide survival is brought up bringing the need for empathy for her by the readers. Her being a suicide survivor indicates that this is an individual that requires stability and support in her life and though the narrator provides financial stability with his stable job, he is still unreliable when it comes to emotional stability (Messer & Collin, P. 47). The narrator has no friends ‘You do not have any friends, period.’, and this is because he is not able to make any intimate connections with other people, which makes his wife to feel isolated from the world (Carver, p. 438). This part of the story fore sees the ultimate irony of Robert the blind man becoming the narrator’s friend at the end of the story.

The reason why the narrator had never had a friend is because he always opted to resort to drug use in order to help relieve himself of boredom and anxiety (Messer & Collin, P. 44). The narrator changes his thinking at the end of the story and decides to be supportive of her by finally warming up to Robert by helping him draw the cathedral which is symbolically used in the story to represent unity. Through this connection with Robert, the narrator moved from isolation to another life of social interactions, he crossed over to an epiphany and he got another outlook on reality (Facknitz & Mark, P. 287).

In ‘The Hills Like White Elephants’, The American is not able to forage the disputes in his relationship unlike the case of Robert. Their major dispute revolves around the issue of abortion where the American wants the girl to undergo an abortion but she is not ready for it. The unwanted baby is symbolically referred to as the ‘white elephant’, which shows that the child resembles much more than just a new life for the two (Weeks & Lewis, p. 77). The baby is meant to test the level of commitment that the American has invested in this relationship. This uncertainty and vacuum in the relationship is characterized by the setting of the story where it takes place in a negated and deserted zone. Hemingway in this case chooses to use a place without any vegetation to symbolize the unfruitful decision that the American is about to make (Lanier, p 279).

Alcohol is constantly used by the American as a way of trying to navigate away from the difficult situations at hand and this is similar to the Robert’s problem. The girl frequently complain about their drinking habits she states, “that’s all we do, isn’t it—look at things and try new drinks?” , which is a suggestion that she does not like the life that they are living and is looking to make some changes in her life (Hemingway 360). The girl is at this point in her life seeking stability, a family and most importantly she needs the support from the American whom she feels is supposed to be her support system and this is literary seen when she watches the way that legs of the table strongly support the table (Weeks & Lewis, p. 77).

On the other hand, the American’s main interest is to convince the girl to go through the abortion which basically illustrates his lack of support. The girl just like the narrator’s wife question the love of this man for her which is what has been their major problem (Hemmingway, p. 361). The girl does not understand why the American is not ready for the change in their life, the American believes that after the operation everything will be fine not considering what the girl really want in regard to the issue. The girl is interested in keeping the baby and she is concerned about the harms that may come with the procedure which is a suggestion that the operation is not healthy (Lanier, p 279). The girl in this case acts as he decision maker and she makes her decision very obvious. The American feels that the baby will be a hindrance to their travelling and this is showed in the way that he looks at the labels of the hotels they had ever visited (Hemingway, 362).

 In the whole of this story, the American is presented as an individual that is basically avoiding all hustles that come with settling down which would require him to settle down and look for a stable job and remain consistent. When the story ends, it is clear that their issues are not really resolved because they do not really come to a conclusion about the issue though the American seems to have a change of heart as he takes their bags to the other side of the tracks (Hemingway, p. 363).

Hemingway unlike with Carver leaves a vague imprint on the way that things are left and one cannot be sure whether the American is ready to offer stability to the girl. In ‘cathedral’ the narrator’s life is transformed and he converts to a different individual, by founding an friendly link with Robert he was able to bring back the frame in his marriage which means that he would offer steadiness to his wife. Both the narrator and the girl were two different characters with the same desire and that is need for stability and emotional support. At the end of the stories, the narrator’s wife was clearly provided with this, but the same is not clearly in the case of the girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works cited

Carver, Raymond. Cathedral: Stories. , 2015. Internet resource.

Facknitz, Mark A. R. “‘The Calm,’ ‘A Small, Good Thing,’ and ‘Cathedral’: Raymond

Carver and the Rediscovery of Human Worth.” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 23, no. 3, Summer 1986, p. 287. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7357970&site=ehost-live.

Hemingway, Ernest. Hills Like White Elephants: Short Story. Toronto: HarperCollins

            Canada, 2013. Internet resource.

Lanier, Doris. “The Bittersweet Taste of Absinthe in Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White

Elephants.’” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 26, no. 3, Summer 1989, p. 279. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7133560&site=ehost-live.

Messer, H.Collin. “Fleeing the Wasteland of Alcoholism: Alienation, Recovery, and Hope in

Raymond Carver’s Cathedral.” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 37, no. 1, Winter 2012, pp. 43–58. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=77324364&site=ehost-live.

Weeks Jr., Lewis E. “Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in ‘Hills Like White Elephants.’” Studies

 

in Short Fiction, vol. 17, no. 1, Winter 1980, p. 75. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7134801&site=ehost-live.