The Loss of Self-Esteem, Autonomy, and Happiness in Hills like White Elephants - Research Paper Example

April 12, The Loss of Self-Esteem, Autonomy, and Happiness in Hills Like White Elephants Not all women who undergo abortion willfully desire it. As a result, they experience anxiety and depression, and in the long-run, unhappiness. Women, who are particularly in abusive relationships, are typically pressured to abort their pregnancies (Silverman et al.). Having bully husbands exert psychological damage on their pregnant wives too, as they pressure them to abort their pregnancies (Andreou 50). In Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, the American is depicted as the typical bully who oppresses weak victims. Jig endures this unequal relationship, most likely because of her youth, race, and gender, which make her vulnerable and easier to control and exploit. Her experience of psychological abuse from her partner has also made her an easy prey of the American’s bullying. This paper shows that because of low self-esteem, Jig loses her autonomy and happiness. The character of Jig is clearly suffering from abuse at the hands of the American and, thus, exhibits diminished self-esteem, which can be confirmed in her behavior throughout the story. The American is a bully with Machiavellian attitudes that are represented through his self-centeredness, disagreeableness, exploitation, and manipulation. He is a classic example of an egotistical man. He keeps on saying that Jig can have the baby if she wants to, and yet he also emphasizes that he does not want to have a baby. He says: “But I dont want anybody but you. I dont want anyone else” (Hemingway). He does not want any other responsibility other than his partner. In “Proposing a Multidimensional Machiavellianism Conceptualization.” Rauthmann and Will use Christie and colleagues’ (principally text-driven and qualitative) research regarding a psychological construct of Machiavellianism, where one of the manifestations is lack of affect and empathy for others (Rauthmann and Will 393). The study by Andreou, in “Bully/Victim Problems and Their Association with Psychological Constructs in 8- To 12-Year-Old Greek Schoolchildren,” also showed that bullies have high scores in Machiavellianism. By persuading Jig to abort the baby, the American emphasizes his preference for his own welfare. He seeks his own happiness, which is typical for Machiavellian characters. The American is also a bully because of his explicit disagreeableness. He is disagreeable in the sense that he keeps on saying things that do not make any sense. He says: “I might have, just because you say I wouldnt have doesnt prove anything” (Hemingway). He is stressing that he has seen white elephants, although he previously admits that he has not seen any. He is also unlikable because he makes grand assumptions about how wonderful life can be without a baby. He tells Jig: “Thats the only thing that bothers us. Its the only thing thats made us unhappy.” Jig doubts this, but she does not directly oppose him. Moreover, the American is Machiavellian, in terms of disagreeableness, because of his immoral attitudes and emotional detachment (Rauthmann and Will 393). For him, abortion is the “best thing to do” (Hemingway). He does not consider the ethical and moral implications of abortion. He also pretends to care for Jig’s welfare, but never his unborn child. For him, this fetus is a “bother” that hampers them from being a carefree couple. The American does not have any emotional attachment for his own child. The American is an exploitative being, another manifestation of his bully nature. He does not even want to talk about the abortion, even when it is evident that it bothers Jig a great deal. When Jig says something about waiting for something, he answers “Oh, cut it out” (Hemingway). He treats Jig as someone inferior to him, someone he cannot respect as an equal. He can easily disregard her emotions and ideas, because he feels superior over her. The image of “two lines of rails in the sun,” in particular, stresses that Jig and the American have an uneven relationship. A Machiavellian person thinks that everyone is dispensable and can be used to serve one’s ends (Rauthmann and Will 393). The American holds more power and he uses that over Jig, a weaker and female subservient being to him. The “bead curtain” refers to the isolation between him and Jig. They are psychologically divided over the abortion, but he intends to sexually exploit Jig further, so he must do everything to push the abortion. The American uses his status in Jig’s life to force her to abort a child whom she considers keeping, based on her hesitation for its abortion. The American is also manipulative. He keeps on undermining the process of abortion by stressing that it is a “perfectly simple” operation where “They just let the air in and then its all perfectly natural” (Hemingway). In reality, he does not know how painful and risky abortions are, because he is a man. He also uses the bandwagon effect in convincing Jig to abort her baby. He says: “You dont have to be afraid. Ive known lots of people that have done it” (Hemingway). He tells Jig that her action is easy and not immoral; others have undergone abortion and they were all fine and “happy” afterwards. In addition, the American manipulates Jig with promises of companionship and a perfect life. He says: “Ill go with you and Ill stay with you all the time...” (Hemingway). He thinks that his presence will be act like a magic pill that will take away all the physical and psychological pain of abortion. Furthermore, he says that he loves Jig “now.” This shows that his love is instrumental and fleeting. If Jig will abort the baby, it will preserve his love for her. He loves her only because of her compliance of his wishes. In addition, the American promises that after the abortion, life will be the way “before” and something as grand as having “everything,” including the “whole world” (Hemingway). Machiavellianism justifies the means with the ends (Rauthmann and Will 393). By presenting positive ends, the American emphasizes to Jig that abortion has more advantages than drawbacks. He manipulates Jig into forgetting her own morals or her own welfare. The American only wants to make sure that he gets what he wants, which is a happy-go-lucky life as a bachelor with a sexual object like Jig. The American, as a bully, has low self-esteem too. This can be inferred from how Jig has the ability to dominate their conversations by leading and ending it, whenever she wants too. She is the one who asked what to drink. She is the first one who starts the action and speech in the story, so to speak. It represents her power as a woman, although a subdued one. She also shifts the topic of drinking to the white hills and then to her abortion. Finally, she tells the American: “Would you please please please please please please please Stop talking” (Hemingway). By saying please, she maintains her inferior status to the American, and yet she also strongly asks him to stop talking. OMoore and Kirkham explore the understanding of the association between self-concept and bullying behavior. They used data from a nationwide study of bullying behavior conducted in Ireland during 1993-1994. The pertinent results from 8,249 school children aged 8 to 18 years were utilized. They examined the global and dimensional nature of self-esteem and how it associated with children and adolescents who either have been victimized or bullied others (OMoore and Kirkham 269). They differentiated “pure victims,” “pure bullies,” and children and adolescents who were both bullied and who also acted as bullies. Pure victims were those who had never bullied others, and pure bullies had not experienced being bully victims (OMoore and Kirkham 269). Those who were both bullied and bullied others were categorized into victims who bully infrequently, sometimes, and frequently and bullies who are victimized, occasionally, sometimes, and frequently (OMoore and Kirkham 269). Findings showed that bullies of primary and post-primary school have lower self-esteem than peers of similar age who did not bully or have been bullied (OMoore and Kirkham 278). Children and adolescents who have bullied frequently have a lower self-esteem than those involved in occasional or moderate bullying too (OMoore and Kirkham 278).At the same time, children and adolescents who acted the dual role of bully and victim have considerably lower levels of self-esteem than their peers who are described as either bullies or victims. Thus, this shows that even the American suffers from low self-esteem too. It is possible that he may have been victimized before by other bullies in his life. By being a bully, however, the American has someone to lash on and to cover up his low self-esteem: his pregnant partner, Jig. Jig suffers from psychological abuse, which leads to her low self-esteem (OMoore and Kirkham 278; Ramashwar 212). The more frequent people are bullied, the lower their self-esteem, where they feel inadequate. A study showed that victims of bullying feel inadequate (OMoore and Kirkham 278). The reference for low self-esteem is when she feels inadequate for not being able to protect her child’s life. She says: “Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things youve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway). Licorice is black, while absinthe is colored green. She feels the disconnection between her abortion and her fertility and its product. She knows she wants the child, but she does not feel powerful enough to fight for it. Indeed, Jig feels that her life is becoming emptier because of the abortion. She says: “I wanted to try this new drink. Thats all we do, isnt it--look at things and try new drinks?” (Hemingway). She has a sarcastic tone. In effect, she is saying that all they do is have fun and have a laidback life, which is no longer enough for her. She feels empty and it is possible that having a child can bring meaning to her life. Her sarcasm continues when she says: “And we could have all this…And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible” (Hemingway). By “all this,” she undermines what we have, which she knows is a short-term relationship. She knows that every day is a day of more impossibility of being happy, and yet, she is resigned to her fate. Because of the American’s psychological abuse, Jig experiences depression. The study by Ramashwar showed that psychological abuse by an intimate partner during pregnancy is connected with postpartum depression among Brazilian women, based on a population-based study conducted in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. When evaluated side-by-side women who had not been abused, those who had endured psychological abuse had a considerably increased likelihood of being depressed (Ramashwar 212). Jig feels depressed in losing her child soon. She struggles with the American in explaining how she feels. She uses silence as a form of defiance for her partner’s control over her. Most of the time, she employs sarcasm to explain her anger against her abortion. She underscores to him that after the abortion, it is not true that they can have everything: “No, we cant. It isnt ours anymore” (Ramashwar 212). She is referring to her peace of mind, her respect for herself that will be gone with her dead baby. She is so depressed that she also wants to “scream” at the American who keeps on repeating himself that abortion is “perfectly simple.” For Jig, it is never simple to choose the American’s happiness over the life of her baby. Jig’s low-self esteem can also be inferred from her happiness that depends on another person. Jig is not concerned of her own welfare, which can be explained by partner psychological abuse. Silverman et al. studied male perpetrators violence and their involvement in their partners’ abortion decisions. Findings showed that these male perpetrators are associated with pregnancies that end with abortion, as well as more conflict in making an abortion decision. Jig suffers from a psychologically abusive partner who forces her to get an abortion. It is possible that the American has manipulated and exploited Jig because of her youth, race, and gender, which made Jig feel that she has no choice on the matter of her abortion. She says to the American: “But I dont care about me” (Hemingway). The American does not care about her feelings and opinions anyway, so she feels resolved to not care for her own interests. Jig also has been conditioned to be subservient to her partner. She tells: “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and youll like it?” (Hemingway). Her tone is so weak, so lacking in self-confidence. She needs the American to like her, to appreciate her sacrifice. Jig feels depressed and anxious with her decision to abort her baby, but she feels powerless. The American is the one who must be economically providing for her. He must be her only support system. Faure and Loxton studied the relationships among anxiety, depression, self-efficacy, and abortion in “Anxiety, Depression and Self-Efficacy Levels of Women Undergoing First Trimester Abortion.” Findings showed that before abortion, women felt high levels of anxiety and moderate levels of depression. Jig also feels anxious and stressed. The motif of hills that look like white elephants stands for her opposing feelings for her pregnancy. On the one hand, it stands for her maternal power and fertility. It represents her life and the life she produces. It also stands for her hope that having a baby will change her life for the better. On the other hand, the American treats this fetus as a nuisance to their lives, a cause of their unhappiness. This is the other side of the white elephants; the baby is a huge burden to them as a couple, but only because the American says so. Jig possesses low self-esteem, because of the abuse she gets from the oppressive American. Her behaviors reflect poor self-worth and loss of independence and happiness. The American is a bully who exploits and manipulates her. Jig has an inner need to fight for her baby, which is why she sees bright white elephants, her symbol of hope. Nevertheless, she lets her low self-image consume her. She allows the American to continuously bully her. Until the end, Jig feels fine, fine for something that will make her miserable for the rest of her “happy” existence. Works Cited Andreou, Eleni. “Bully/Victim Problems and Their Association with Psychological Constructs in 8- To 12-Year-Old Greek Schoolchildren.” Aggressive Behavior 26.1 (2000): 49-56. Print. Faure, S. and H. Loxton. “Anxiety, Depression and Self-Efficacy Levels Of Women Undergoing First Trimester Abortion.” South African Journal of Psychology 33.1 (2003): 28-38. Print. Hemingway, Ernest. Hills like White Elephants. In David L. Pike and Ana M. Acosta, Literature: A World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, Essays. Boston: Longman, 2011. 444. Print. OMoore, M. and C. Kirkham. “Self-Esteem and Its Relationship to Bullying Behaviour.” Aggressive Behavior 27.4 (2001): 269-283. Print. Ramashwar, S. “Psychological Abuse During Pregnancy Linked To Depression in Brazil.” International Perspectives on Sexual & Reproductive Health 36.4 (2010): 212-213. Print. Rauthmann, John F. and Theresa Will. “Proposing a Multidimensional Machiavellianism Conceptualization.” Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal 39.3 (2011): 391-403. Print. Silverman, Jay G., Decker, Michele R., McCauley, Heather L., Gupta, Jhumka, Miller, Elizabeth, Raj, Anita, and Alisa B.Goldberg. “Male Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence and Involvement in Abortions and Abortion-Related Conflict.” American Journal of Public Health 100.8 (2010): 1415-1417. Print. Read More