Bittersweet Love: Forces that Cause Love Relationship to Change for Better or Worst
Jazzmin Jones
Instructor Chunn
ENG 125
February 2015

Literature has been the foundation that develops the need to have conflicts that can creates inspiring pieces of ideas of how to overcome it or learn from it if it cannot be resolves. It express the hardships and struggles from the experiences of the writer that reader can establish connections or may acknowledge it as a worldly or personal crisis. In short story, “Country Lovers” by Nadine Gourdime and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Elswell Hemmingway, both centers around the conflict that involves the issues of forces that may threaten to end love relationships in way both couples didn't want, by exploring the use of literary techniques such as symbolism, climax, and setting. Both stories deal with forces that is causing a love crisis between each other. The theme in “Hill Like White Elephant”, the couples are dealing with the topic of their unborn child and abortion and in “Country Lovers” focus on the love of childhood friends that turn into sexual curiosity that is against society rules and expectation between blacks and whites. Hills Like White Elephants, the whole story is consist of dialogue between a young woman who is nicknamed “Jig” and the unnamed American lover, trying to talk to each other but neither are listening or viewing each other point of views. The “white elephant” symbolizes to Jig's unwanted pregnancy that in her perspective, is proving to be a unwanted gift but precious because of her statement about the setting she residing in where the “hills” located in Eros across a valley that “look like white elephants” are “lovely”, which enlightens the statements to be more of something she want to experience of having the child that is unwanted. However, her American lover only refer to it as “only[a] thing”, a nusiance, that is in the way to their happiness and if she just its just a “simple operation” then everything can back their normal lives as a couple. The drink also signify trouble in their relationship because Jig seem to be bother by it when she states “that's all we do—look at things and try new drinks” and refer to the drink “Anis del Toro” tasted like “licorse” that simbolize the sweet past and bitter present of their relationship that Jig seeks something new in their relationship like getting married or having a baby, like in their current sitiuation but the American seem to not want or is not ready for change. Jig began to jog her indecisiveness to either get the abortion that causing an impass between them or do what's right and simply accept her new unwanted gift. The American is being falsely supportive through the whole story, keep telling her that he would love her if she decides to do it or not, but then deject it thinking in her case it “perfectly simple” to get a abortion. Jig argues that even if she decides to get the opertion that “nothing will go back to normal”. Country Lovers revolves around the childhood romance of two people of difference races that turn into sexual curority in society where this display of action is deemed socially wrong. The setting of the story is around the time of post-Apartheid, which states the black and white are to remain to live unequal lives. “ something about the Apatheid through someone or the author herself”. Thus, Paulus always “told her, each time, when they would meet again” because they can't be seen in public together since it's unacceptable in sociaity views. When Thebedi give birth to their child, she didn't say a word about it to Paulus until he seen it after he came home from college that the baby was light skinned—an evidence of their love together that threaten the stability of their relationship. It was because of their cultural pressures that Paulus end up killing the baby to protect himself from public humiliation and Thebedi, being black and woman, was helpless to save the life of her child. She knew that she couldn't win against a force that made her submissive to the system and Paulus took advantage of the opportunity to get of their child regarding his sense morality. But she took a chance and testify against him. At first she claimed that “she saw the accused pouring liguid into the baby's mouth. She said he threaten to shoot her if she told anyone.” Yet, a year later, she retracted to her testimony and testify that “she had not seen what the white man did in[her] house.” She testified while still wearing “the gilt hoop earrings” that Pallus gave her to symbolizes that she still had feeling for him even when she knew it was over between the two of the them after her statement at the end, “blah blah blah” Even when both short stories have the same type of theme and same individual vs individual conflict, there are some aspect in the stories that are different. In “Country Lovers” the society still existing during the time of a post-Apartheid, which laws that is stated only in South Africa that all black and whites are to remain unequal”