Comparison and Contrast between Hills like White Elephants and the Cathedral

Surname 1
Student’s Name:
Professor’s Name:
Course:
Date:
Comparison and Contrast between Hills like White Elephants and the Cathedral
Romantic and marital relationships are as varied as the people engaged in them since they
are a plethora of human interaction that call for vulnerability while facing life together. Hills like
White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple, who are at a train station. They are
debating if the wife should proceed with a procedure or not, and the dilemma is that the wife
wants to become a mother while the man does not want to start a family (Ernest, 39-44). The
Cathedral by Carver is about a married man, Robert, his wife and a blind man. The story is
narrated through the observations, thoughts and actions of Robert (Carver). In the beginning
Robert, an emotionally closed of man, who is inattentive to the sensitivities of his wife, is
prejudiced against the blind man since they are different. He cannot comprehend how the blind
man could even have a wife, let alone experience life in its true depth. This essay will seek to
break down these two stories, and to shed some light on their comparison and contrasts.
Some clear comparisons between the two stories is that in both stories, the man and the
woman in a relationship. When they are faced with the same circumstances, they face them
differently. In the Cathedral, the wife is enthusiastic about the blind man while the husband is
not. In the Hills Like White Elephants, the woman is enthusiastic about the prospect of a new
different life, a family life, while the man wants to go on living a life of travel and adventure like