The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, A & P by John Updike and Ernest Hemmingways Hills Like White Elephants - Essay Example

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, “A & P” by John Updike and Ernest Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” ‘The Lesson’ by Toni Cade Bambara, ‘A & P’ by John Updike and Ernest Hemmingway’s ‘ Hills Like White Elephants’ are spectacular stories that have used various devices in communicating to the Audience. The presentation of the stories, narration techniques, the character formation and the plot has varied widely. However, the stories demonstrate the wealth of skills by the different writers through the some similarities in the presentation. One feature that outstands in both stories is the mastery of language that the authors use, the vocabulary and the sentence construction is one that shows proficiency. Their statements are expressive and the message is not outright, the mind of the audience is fully engaged as they read; otherwise, it may be difficult to comprehend what the authors are up to if the reader lacks a keen focus. ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ presents a Spanish story of American and his girlfriend. The characters are in a train station waiting for a train, they are seated outside waiting for a train with an intention of ending to Madrid. American orders two bottles of beer and begins taking them as they engage in a conversation; she mentions to him that the hills they can see look like white elephants. He is categorical that he has never seen white elephants. He goes on to reprimand her to have fun together while they continue consuming their beer, she retorts that she has been having fun. In a turn of events, she mentions that the hills she had seen do no look like white elephants as she had seen earlier. The man asks about Jig having an operation but she is concerned about the consequences thereof. In persuasion, American says that he has ever encountered several who had done the operation and retained their normal life. They seemed to agree but the American was persistent that it was her free will to either consider the operation or not. The bartender notifies them that the train would be coming in five minutes time, they start moving their belongings in readiness to catching up the train. A different plot is seen in the story, “The Lesson”. A young elite woman by the name of Miss Moore takes children from her neighbourhood of Harlem to the upper class town of FAO Schwartz in Manhattan where they learn several things. The story is a first person narrative that is told by one of the beneficiaries of the trip, a young black girl called Sylvia. Sylvia begins her narration with a description of the events preceding the trip, during the trip and the exposes her attitude towards the trip. The attitude that Sylvia and her colleagues demonstrates is that of lack of appreciation Miss Moore’s intention, she mockingly says ‘And she was always planning these boring-ass things for us to do’. The explorative trip takes the children by surprise; they seem not to understand the basis of the expensive items they find in FAO Schwartz while they were clueless on the use of some of the items. Other children who had accompanied Miss Moore include Sugar, Rosie Giraffe, Junebug, Flyboy, and Big Butt among others. The story by John Updike presents a different view from the other to stories. The story is centred on Sammy, his manger and three ladies. Sammy, the narrator was busy preparing items in the grocery when three girls in bathing suits get into the store, they draw his attention and he is completely distracted (Updike 3). He is mainly attracted to one of the girls who look like she is the one in charge of the others; he calls her ‘Queenie’. The other shopper’s are also drawn to the girls, an aspect that pleases Sammy. The girls walk briskly to the store found what they wanted and ended in the direction of the narrator’s checkout line. The manager of the store, Lengel is infuriated by the girls and confronts them. When the girls had left Lengel asked Sammy to ring them up but he tells his boss that he is quitting. Lengel tells him of how life will be if he dares to quit, Sammy moves out and Lengel takes his position (Updike 4-5). Symbolism is on of the main hugely used device in the three stories. ‘The Lesson’ and the ‘Hills like White Elephant’ are very rich stories in symbolism while some little symbolic figure has been used in the ‘A& P’ story. Miss Moore is a symbolic character, who yearns to see more for the community. Sugar is also a symbolic character that is friendly and goes along very well with the narrator as well as Miss Moore. The expensive toys and other items symbolize a life of extravagance and upper class living, it also represents the difference between backwardness in terms of economy and social standing. In the other story, the white elephant that Jig talks about is symbolic of the unwanted pregnancy she had while their drunkenness nature is a depiction of their carelessness (Updike 2). In the other narration, the semi nude girls are symbolic of the generational change where individuals can get into a public place in whichever state they prefer. They also represent social and economic disparity among the people. Dialogue has been immensely used in the three stories. In particular, the story, ‘Hills like white Elephants’ is majorly a dialogue between American and his girlfriend, the dialogue that takes place as they wait for the train seems to be an in-depth talk that lacks good communication skills. It is characterized by inconsistencies that cause them to lack coherence in their articulation. There was also dialogue in the ‘A & P’ story between Sammy and Lengel over the issue of the girls; however, it is not s pronounced as in the previous story (Updike 4). ‘The Lesson’ features characters that engage in heated dialogue over the use of various items they find in FAO Schwartz, in addition Miss Moore makes his mission to exposure for the girls a reality by constantly engaging them in conversations. At one time, she was describing to them the use of the paperweight while the children had their input of what they considered it to be. The themes in the stories are very varied. ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ brings out the themes of drunkenness and carelessness as depicted by American and his girlfriend who want to be have an operation that is symbolic of abortion. This demonstrates their careless living; the conversation itself brings them as individuals that are not certain of what they want. In reference to having the operation, the American retorts ‘I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to.’ In addition, they are constantly asking for more and more beer. The stratification of the society in classes and the rise in social classes is a theme that has featured greatly in the ‘A & P’ story. According to the narrator, it is apparent that Queenie and her colleagues are in a different social class with him and his boss, Lengel since they walk in the store semi-nude without having much concern on what others say about them (Updike 3). Power is also another theme; Lengel uses his power to question the dressing by the ladies while Sammy and colleague have no comment concerning the issue. He also exercises his authority over Sammy when he requests him to ring them up. The theme of physical appearance also features, the ladies were treated in a different manner and viewed differently because they were uniquely dressed scantly. ‘The Lesson’ has the major theme of social-economic stratification where one society is characterized by backwardness and uncivilization while the other has advanced and is vey civilized. The children from Harlem are really amused by the cost of items and the extravagance that some parts of the community demonstrate. Toni presents gives very long descriptions of the occurrences in the lesson coupled with flowery language. As Sylvia narrates her story he uses a very some kind of a language that is characteristic of the life in a ghetto, she says, “You wanna who that costs what? she’d say, cocking her head to the side to get a better look at the hole in my head.” (Bambara 652). On other occasions, she has used a language that is not grammatically correct but characterizes the type of class of people that are economically alienated. The story has used irony, the children whom Miss Moore is concerned about and makes an effort to make a change in their lives are the ones who resent her. It is also ironical that the children plot to steal the drivers tip. In the ‘A & P’ narration, the author has applies use of shorter and descriptive sentences and somehow uses a plain language that does not exhibit many figurative aspects. It brings out the incidences in the store in a systematic order. ‘Hills like White Elephants’ are basically a plain conversation between the American and his girlfriend; the conversation consists of short and straightforward sentences that bring some miscommunication between the characters. The sentences are poorly constructed. In conclusion, the themes, figures of speech, the plot and the setting of the three stories are diverse in many respects. The authors have focussed on growing their stories using a language that connects with the settings, for example drunkards are characterized by brief and inconsistent conversations while the narration by Sylvia in the ‘ Lesson’ uses slung to coincide with the her background. The same translates to the ‘A & P’ story where the language links with the workplace setting and the tone of the story is characterized by its setup in a place where power and class are regarded. Works Cited Bambara, Cade, T. The Lesson. Hemingway, Ernest. Hills like White Elephants Updike, John. A & P. Read More