Can I Get a Do-Over



Can I Get a Do-Over? Communication in Literature

Leah Thomas

Despite technological advances, we humans still struggle with the art of communication. This theme is explored in both David Ives’ short play Sure Thing and the short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway. Sure Thing comes from Ives’ collection, All in the Timing, which includes many ten-minute plays dealing with irony, timing and language (Green). Both the short story and the short play portray scenes in café-like settings, and are conversations between a man and a woman. However, they handle communication in very different ways, and are not as successful in sustaining the conversation and getting the point across.

In Hills Like White Elephants, a couple discuss over drinks at a train station whether or not to abort the girl, Jig’s pregnancy. The story is written primarily in dialogue, making it very similar to a short play in structure as well. The two travelers rarely use pronouns or specify what it is they are talking about. The language they communicate is indicative of a typical man and woman, according to Pamela Smiley. “Even though the American’s language is the language of power, it is the language of limitation” (Smiley 11). The American is emotionless, referring to the abortion as being an operation, if even that. Jig tries to be witty and funny, but is obviously very sad and not content with her current situation, be it with the American or with the baby. “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking,” she asks, showing us her lack of interest in communicating any further (Hemingway 38). The scene ends as abruptly as is begins, without specifying what the characters decide. “Hemingway leaves his characters as he found them, in the middle of something larger, outside the margins of the story. Jig and the American truly come to represent the lost generation at this moment. Without resolution, each isolated and alienated from the other, they remain in the no man's land of inconclusivity, the possibility of tradition and continuity represented by the fertile valley just outside of their reach” (Henningfield). Though they are discussing very serious issues, the conversation is light and apathetic. The couple has a rich history, yet is not very expressive with what they want to communicate to one another.

The opposite occurs in Sure Thing. In this comedy, a man meets a woman sitting alone at a café, and tries to spark up a conversation with her. They talk very seriously about light things like movies and books. However, they are aided by the magic of the theatre. “When one character makes a blunder that would possibly end the encounter, the bell rings and the scene is reset, giving the character an opportunity to correct the mistake” (Green). Throughout the play, the characters, because of their inability to communicate, find themselves trapped in corners and have to start over, or go back to a part of the conversation that worked. Sometimes Betty is angry and dismissive towards Bill, sometimes inviting. Bill changes his tastes to fit better with Betty’s. In one exchange, Bill goes on a rant about Faulkner, which bored Betty. After the bell rings, the monologue becomes a dialogue, where both characters are included. It is almost like a psychological experiment, where the two characters are being conditioned to interact socially with success. They learn from their mistakes, and become better communicators through trial and error. Less of the concern is put on the character’s gender, also. Both the man and the woman correct their behavior as the play progresses.

However, the eventual conversations in Sure Thing, the elements that work, have a very scripted feel, no pun intended. It is almost too perfect. It is quite possible that Jig and the American are ultimately the better communicators, simply because they manage to survive a real-world setting. Put Betty and Bill at that train station and an abortion, and they would not more than a few seconds without a bell’s ring to tell them they did something wrong. Their many false starts shows the audience that they are bad, rather than skilled communicators. If the two characters from Hills Like White Elements had a supernatural device like that, they would take advantage of it, and say their real feelings, knowing that they had the chance to do it over and make it better. They would probably also come to a decision about their future family faster. Jig and the American man are dealing with a conflict, and use language to discuss, and also avoid, that conflict. Bill and Betty use language as a toy, trying out new phrases and histories to see what will get them in trouble, without fear of consequence. Both works have communication as a theme, but it seems as though Sure Thing is a farce of it, or an exercise in it, rather than a scene in which characters are seriously trying to connect.

Trying to connect with and convey true feelings to another person presents many obstacles. Each work goes about overcoming these obstacles in different ways. Though many would consider the characters from Ives to be the better communicators because they are more open with each other and metaphorically “ride off into the sunset” at the end of the drama, in my opinion it is not so. Hemingway creates characters that are flawed, but very real. Jig and the American may be indecisive and limit themselves through words, but at least they are able to keep the conversation going for a long period of time. In comedy, you can afford to cause blunders and accidents, but not in drama. Through the characters in each piece, an intellectual boy and girl in varying states of confusion and happiness, are very similar on the surface, it is their given circumstances that develop the theme of communication here and convey it to the audience.

Works Cited

Green, Leah. “David Ives’” Critical Survey of Drama, Second Revised Edition. Salem Press, Inc., 2003

Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants.” Writing About Literature In The Media Age. Daniel Anderson. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. 35-38.

Henningfield, Diane Andrews. “Overview of ‘Hills Like White Elements.’” Short Stories for Students. The Gale Group, 1999.

Ives, David. "Sure Thing.” Writing About Literature In The Media Age. Daniel Anderson. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. 289-295.

Smiley, Pamela. “Gender-Linked Miscommunication in ‘Hills Like White Elements.’” The Hemingway Review. Fall 1998.

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