The central theme of Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is this idea of miscommunication and factors from both sides contributing to the disorder of the situation. On one side, the woman is dodging around the problem, and on the other side, the man wants to force an answer out of her about a decision that needs consideration. It takes two hands to clap and two dancers to tango. I like biology, but it seems like my teacher just wants to see me fail. Does she have to single me out every class? Can't she complain about someone else’s work and make an example of them? My head was turning over these thoughts before I walked into class that day. The way the tables are set up around the room means there is a bio lab today. My lab partner is also absent today which means I have to handle the entire lab by myself. The first thing I’m going to do before the teacher gets here is try to get a small head start on this lab packet. It’s just chock full of useless information and busy work which are both trademarks of her teaching style. When she walked into the room I felt it like I have a sixth sense. It’s like someone is watching you and you can feel the uneasiness creep all the way up your back. As we all took our seats and she started lecturing us about some thin glass tools that can break easily I read ahead and started to do some of the busy work very half-assedly. She probably already knew that I was just filling out random things in her precious packet instead of listen to her imperative speech about 10 cent glass tubes so she grabbed my packet, waved it around, and held it up for the class to see. “See this? This is exactly what I don’t want you to do. This and this and this is all wrong. You’re gonna have to redo all of this” she said as she pointed to each of the things I had written and held it in front of my face. A little snort of amusement slipped out and she looked over the packet that was between us at me. I’m pretty sure she took it as a challenge and continued “You think this is funny? You just gave yourself and your group extra work. They aren’t gonna like you for this.” “Sure.” I put my earbuds in and turned on some music. I didn’t want to hear anymore. “Are you aware that you can get disciplinary action filed against you for not following my directions, Mr. Rajasekaran?” She purposely slaughtered my last name like she thought that it had never been done before. “I’m sure you'd love to see that” “I would love to see you do some decent work” “I’d love to see you be a decent person and not fuck with me all the time” “And now I’d love to see you in the principal's office” she said as she retrieved a detention notice.
1 Comment
Sabatino
3/3/2019 07:44:58 am
Thanks for sharing this post. I am sure most people can identify with conflicts with authority. Which literary conflict would you say drives this scene? How might description deepen this scene-setting and subtext development?
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“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all: Read a lot and write a lot”
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