Compare/Contrast Dee from `Everyday Use` by Alice Walker and the `man` in Hills Like White Elephants

Dominance and the Quest for the Self in Alice Walker 's `Everyday Use and Ernest Hemingway 's `Hills Like White Elephants

Alice Walker 's Everyday Use ' and Ernest Hemingway 's Hills like White Elephants ' both feature characters , disparate in gender , who are trying to attain a sense of identity and individuality . In Everyday Use ' it is the character of Dee who is trying to carve her own niche away from the faceless and indistinct communal nature of the traditional African-American communities . On the other hand , in Hemingway 's literature it is the

character cryptically known only as the man ' who tries to find his true , masculine self . Both their sense of belonging and self is derived through a near-ruthless desire to make everything and everyone conform to their beliefs and desires . Yet , as seen in the conclusion of both short stories , there will always be cases when things do not turn out the way they want them to , no matter how much they force it to happen their way

Dee 's nature is seen most in her mother 's daydreams , a subliminal message that shows just how much the mother knows about her daughter 's controlling tendencies . Her mother , while waiting for Dee to arrive daydreams about her and Dee being brought together in a tearful reunion on a TV program (Walker 273 . Yet , the mother , even in the fictional world she has created , knows that she cannot appear as herself on the show . She must appear as Dee wants her to become : a hundred pounds lighter , [her] skin like uncooked barley pancake (273 ' Dee wanted to show a better version of her mother and not the large , big-boned woman with rough , man-working hands .[who] wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day (273 ' She wants to be associated only with people who reflected the image she wanted to project of herself , as a woman of style and sophistication

On the other hand , the man in Hills ' is like Dee , a person who is also seeking to find his true self . However , identity for him is not so much as being separate from the faceless community but rather it is a want to establish and define his masculinity . Note the irony in him being called the man ' for in fact , this man is not at all comfortable with who he is , choosing instead to manipulate and control Jig in to gain a sense of being a man . Even if the man kept saying , I wouldn 't have you do it if you didn 't want to ' he instantly adds , But I know it 's perfectly simple (Hemingway 330 ' It shows that he is not sincere that he wants Jig to not do it (the abortion ) but instead is trying to force her to see his way . This streak is very much distinctive of a typical macho character

This longing to carve a niche for them is not at all deplorable . What is deplorable is the insensitivity and...