Blog Post #2: Better Left Unsaid?

1. I chose "Hills Like White Elephants" and the passage after the American and the girl started talking about the operation.
2. I decided to elaborate this passage, because the characters are saying things that on the surface they seem to mean, but underneath I think there are different emotions beneath what they're really saying. I wanted to show those emotions.
3. I decided what to write/say by looking at the passage and finding what I thought the characters' emotions actually were versus what they were saying. The techniques that I used that were opposite of Hemingway's were characters' thoughts and details.

     The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads. She wanted to change the subject. She didn't want to keep talking about this operation. She didn't want to have to deal with this right now. All she wanted was for their relationship to go back to normal and for all of their problems to be fixed.

     "And you think then we'll be all right and be happy?" she asked, wanting his confidence, because she wasn't so sure herself. If he said it would be okay then it would be, or at least that's what she wanted to believe.

     "I know we will. You don't have to be afraid. I've known lots of people that have done it." He tried to sound strong and sure so that she would believe him.

       "So have I. And afterward they were all so happy," she said trying to reassure herself that this was the right thing to do.

    "Well," the main said, "if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to." He wanted to sound sincere, but he didn't truly mean what he was saying. Of course he wanted her to go through with the operation. It would fix their problems. He needed to be more persuasive. "But I know it's perfectly simple."

    "And you really want to?" she asked, still very unsure of what her decision should be.

    "I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you don't really want to," he said, now trying to convince her in a more subtle yet compassionate way.

    "And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?"

    "I love you now. You know I love you."

    They both wanted their relationship to go back to normal and for the other to be happy. The journey to find that happiness, though, was more difficult for one of them, because that person had more to sacrifice.