Pak-tung Le

EN 102

RR#2

From this week’s readings and last week’s readings there were many facets of male and female relationships that were touched upon. This week’s readings to me were negative and quite disheartening, especially since this is coming up on Valentine’s Day. Lorrie Moore’s How discusses the relationship between a man and a woman. When first reading it, I thought it was a checklist of how the dating process would unfold and progress in her mind and then how the relationship would end. Throughout the story, she is writing about the different phases within the relationship within a timeline. However upon thinking about it, the author writes this in a second person and perhaps she is relating another woman’s story and how she is explaining to her that it is better that she left and that with time, she will no longer feel anything. “A week, a month, a year. The sadness will die like an old dog. You will feel nothing but indifference. The logy whine of a cowboy harmonica, plaintive, weary, it will fade into the hills slow as slow Hank Williams. One of those endings” (Moore 141).

Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants represented to me about how relationships can be somewhat manipulative when one person is trying to win the love of another individual. Jig apparently does not care for herself and is seeking the approval and love of the man that she is with. They are on the way to Madrid for the girl to have a procedure. As one continues to read the story, it becomes apparent that she is going to get an abortion and she is not comfortable with the decision. Throughout the story, I felt that the man was reverse selling her into having the abortion, knowing that she wants to make him happy. He tells her that once this is done, everything will go back to before and they will be happy again. “That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy” (Hemingway line 50).

Diaz’s The Sun, The Moon, The Stars was story that was about a man by the name of Yunior who was in a relationship with Magdalena and was unhappy with it. As the story progresses, you see how he realizes that he made a mistake and tries to make things right with her. Unfortunately, the woman that he cheats on her with sends her a letter discussing the indiscretion. The relationship is doomed at that point since she is not able to move past that act. The relationship between the two was lopsided from the beginning to me. Initially, I felt that she was the one that was giving a hundred percent to the relationship and after Yunior cheated, he realized what he had and tried to resurrect the relationship. However, relationships often have changes with circumstances and are often not repairable. Magda apparently understood this and moved on while Yunior thought he would be able to go back in time. Perhaps both of them thought that they could go back in time and rebuild the relationship and it took Magda was able to see it sooner than Yunior. It was not until Yunior was with the Vice President that he began to understand that you cannot relive the past and that relationships need to progress. Diaz indicates this when he writes, “And that’s when I know it’s over. As soon as you start thinking about the beginning, it’s the end” (24). Many relationships rely on memoirs of the past, instead of building new ones. My feelings are if you are not able to looking at the present and the future, you are reliving the past and it will be a huge strain on your relationship.