Great Gatsby and Hills like White Elephants paper

Decadence can be seen in people who lack ethics and discipline. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants,” a young girl’s boyfriend dominates their relationship, causing her to lack independence. While sitting at the train station, the couple has a conversation regarding the “operation,” abortion. The two of them they try to decide what would be best for the two of them. Contemplating the options, the girl tries to stand up for something she believes in, which is to have the baby. In Hemingway’s dialogue, he not only shows how the girl struggles for her own independence through her silence but also how the man tells her what is best for her instead of making her own decisions. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is about a man, Gatsby, who loves a woman, Daisy. While Gatsby is away at school trying to make something of his life, Daisy marries another man, Tom. After finding out about Daisy’s abused marriage of unreal and neglected love, Gatsby returns home and tries to win her back, happy or not, by throwing outrageous parties to try and attract her attention. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a girl is dominated by a man by the woman’s lack of decision making and independence, leading her to lack empowerment. In “Hills like White Elephants” and The Great Gatsby, the males’ domination in the relationships causes the woman to lack independence by not speaking their minds and being the individual that they stand for.
In the “Hills like White Elephants,” the male dominates the relationship by continually telling the girl what is right for her. Throughout the story, the man pushes the girl towards the “operation,” reassuring her that she “wouldn’t mind it” (2). He explains to the girl how she should feel about the operation as if he would know. Not knowing or caring what the girl’s actual thoughts are on the topic, he pretends to have sympathy for the girl, and says, “I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple” (2). Reassuring her she can make whatever decision she wants, he still however, pushes the fact that he does not want her to go through with the pregnancy. He forces his opinion and does not allow the decision to be agreed upon mutually. This is what he really wants by coercing her towards his position, the only decision to true happiness in his eyes.
In The Great Gatsby, majority of the men take over their wives by controlling their relationships. The women rely on the men on how to act and do with their lives. Since the men take over most of the relationships, the women are unable to have control of their lives, “‘What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?’ Cried Daisy, ‘and the day after that, and the next thirty years?’” (113). This shows how the husbands managed their lives; they did not do anything without the permission of their man. It was unlikely that a woman disobeyed her love, and it was considered disgraceful.
In “Hills like White Elephants”, the girl being controlled by her boyfriend, seeks to gain her own independence. She pushes for her own autonomy. In the beginning, the girl was controlled and decided to agree with the man. She says, “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me” (3). This conveys the girls’ desire to make the man happy by continually acting like she does not have feelings. However, wanting to have the baby and to stick up for who she is, the girl finally shouts, “Would you please please please please please stop talking?” (3). As a result, she was able to change the subject to something other than the operation, finally gaining that little bit of freedom she has been seeking.
In Fitzgerald’s novel, Daisy desired a life of independence, however. Daisy and her friend Jordan were nothing but statues, “The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white...” (8). The women sat as if they had nothing better to do but for the men to admire them like trophies, more than an individual. Not having to be intelligent or witty, the women hope that their children will be the same, “I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool…” (21). This demonstrates how women are more as an award than someone who wanted to be loved for who they are. The women, never gaining what they are missing, did not realize how important it is to have their own independence; it corrupted the women’s real view of life to be an individual.
In “Hills like White Elephants” and The Great Gatsby, the males domination in the relationships cause the women to have decadence, through not speaking their minds leading to the lack of independence. The women in these stories show how women’s lives were taken over by males and did not have much of a say in what went on in their lives. They cannot be pushed around and be used like a trophy on a man’s shelf, or “couch”. Decadence was shown throughout the girls poor morals in their society and love lives.