A Bloodred Sky

Statement of Intent (essay)

Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" and Genevieve Connolly's pastiche "A Bloodred Sky" explore how a controversial conflict can cause two people to see unrelated aspects of the world around them in different ways. Both stories use symbolic imagery, conflicting dialogue, and characterization of a pessimist and an optimist to portray these effects on the perspectives of the characters. The contrasting perspectives are illustrated with regard to two emotionally taxing events: pregnancy and murder.

Both stories use symbolic imagery to show how the two characters' perspectives on this imagery is different due to their conflicting viewpoints on the ideas represented. The use of this symbolism in "Hills Like White Elephants" introduces the idea that the baby in the story is a white elephant, or an unwanted gift. "They look like white elephants" (Hemingway 1). Interestingly, Jig is the character who sees the hills as white elephants, not the man, even though the man is the one who wants Jig to get an abortion to get rid of the unwanted gift, saying that her pregnancy is ". . . the only thing that's made us [Jig and him] unhappy" (Hemingway 2). However, since Jig is the one who sees the hills as white elephants, this could point to her acknowledgement of the man's perspective even though she disagrees with him and wants to keep the baby, pointing out to the man that "once they take it away, you never get it back" (3). In "A Bloodred Sky," the dark-haired man is the one who introduces an everyday scene, the sky, as a more abstract idea: "It looks like blood" (Connolly 1). Because of this imagery, he dislikes the sunrise, saying "It's too bright" (1), while the blond man counters this observation with his own opinion: "It's pretty to me" (1). However, the blond man does not explicitly disagree with the observation that the sky looks like blood, implying that he thinks the blood imagery is pretty, not just the sunrise itself. In this way, the characters in both stories see the same imagery but interpret it differently based on their own viewpoints of the conflict.

The dialogue in both stories serves as the most direct way for the characters to express their disagreement with each other over the conflict in each story. After the dark-haired man in "A Bloodred Sky" makes his remark about the sunrise resembling blood and his companion disagrees, saying it's pretty, the dark-haired man says, "You don't see it how I do" (Connolly 2). Since the blond does not disagree that the sunrise looks like blood, this statement indicates that the two disagree on the connotations given to the sunrise imagery and how it relates to their own situation. Their different opinions on the bloody sunrise reveal that the dark-haired man regrets the murder, but the blond man does not. Similarly, when Jig states, "I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn't that bright?" (Hemingway 2), she challenges the man to agree with her observation and blatantly admit his true feelings toward her pregnancy. He relents by saying that her observation was bright, but he does not elaborate any more on his perspective of the pregnancy. The blond's reply to the dark-haired man's observation, as stated above, reveals a similar reaction in that neither the blond nor the American man seems to think that white elephant babies or bloody sunrises are a bad thing.

Both stories also use characterization of a pessimist and an optimist to reveal the characters' opposite perspectives on the conflicts they face. In "A Bloodred Sky," the dark-haired man say that the sky is ". . . too red and bright. Can't escape from the brightness" (3). The "brightness" can be considered a metaphor for guilt or for police searches. The dark-haired man does not think that he and his companion can hide from the guilt of murder or the searches. This indicates that he is a pessimist. In contrast, his companion is an optimist, and therefore sees the sunrise as pretty and thinks that they can escape to San Francisco. Characterization is also used to reveal the characters' contrasting perspectives in "Hills Like White Elephants." When Jig and the man argue about whether or not the world is theirs, Jig says, "No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back" (3), revealing herself as the pessimist. Like the dark-haired man, Jig is also the one with a darker perspective: she points out that the baby will be gone forever if she gets an abortion, while the American man believes that ridding themselves of the baby will give them freedom. In "A Bloodred Sky," the pessimistic dark-haired man sees the tragedy of the situation represented in the sky, whereas the optimistic blond man sees beauty in the symbolism of the sky. Their disagreement is so extreme that when the dark-haired man decides to turn himself in to the police, the blond man prepares to shoot him: "He [the blond man] slowly removed his hand - no longer empty - from the inner pocket of his sweater . . . then he took his aim" (3).

Through symbolism, characterization, and dialogue, "Hills Like White Elephants" and the pastiche "A Bloodred Sky" reveal contrasting perspectives between their two main characters. These stories present ideas about the effects of emotionally taxing situations on a person's perspective of the world around them. In doing so, the authors give their readers a new understanding of how such situations can affect one's perspective.