T.H.
English 2202
30 July 2002

The Similarities of "Hills Like White Elephants"
and "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried"

When I first read these two stories, I did not think that there were any similarities, but once I started thinking about them, I realized that they had many things in common.  Both stories center around death; in "Hills" the characters are discussion abortion, and in "Cemetery" one of the main characters is sick and dying.

The basic structure of both stories is similar.  Both have two main characters; in "Hills" they are a man and a woman, and in "Cemetery" they are two women.  Neither story gives the characters names.  There is not a lot of background information given on any of the characters: in "Hills" all that we know about the man and the woman is that they travel a lot, and the two women in "Cemetery" went to college together.

In both stories, one character is portrayed as emotionally stronger than the other; in "Hills" it is the man because he is older and supposedly knows more than the girl, and in "Cemetery" the sick woman is not afraid of dying while the friend is afraid of many things.  Both stories focus on one character trying to comfort the other; in "Hills" the man is trying to convince the girl that everything will be o.k. and it is a simple operation, and in "Cemetery" the friend is trying to make her sick friend feel better by talking of silly things to take her mind off of her illness.

All four characters in the stories are trying to pretend that everything is or will be o.k., but there is tension under the surface: the man in "Hills" is trying to convince the girl that the decision is hers to make but he is trying to steer her into the decision.  He does this by telling her that it is a simple operation; once it's over everything will go back to the way that it was, and "it's really not anything," while the girl is not sure that she wants everything to go back to the way that it was.  In "Cemetery" the friends are trying to have fun and talk of "useless stuff," but they both know that the sick woman is going to die.  (#1)

(378 words)

Prof's Comments:

(#1)  Well done!  Good points of comparison!