Life is something that no person can truly understand. As humans, we all live in an existence we know almost nothing of, but we all are used to the uncertainty. Some have religion to plug the hole of the lack of knowledge, and agnostics and atheists shrug and dismiss the knowledge of our creation. However, what we call “life” is the only thing we know; we feel the emotions and pain of life every day and life and death are the things that make people most emotional. The texts Hills Like White Elephants and Joyas Volardores are two texts that talk about life in different ways. Hills Like White Elephants is a story of a couple having a difficult conversation, and this conversation to debate whether or not to get an abortion. Joyas Volardores is a text without a story, but with a commentary on the life of all living things. Though both these texts are different in many ways, they are similar in that Doyle and Hemingway both tap into the emotional reaction to life and hardships of the reader to make their texts Joyas Volardores and Hills Like White Elephants to make the text have bigger impact on the reader.Hemmingway’s Hills Like White Elephants starts in the setting of a train stop with a couple drinking beers; they tip-toe around the seemingly sensitive topic of an important operation, an operation important to their relationship. The operation is never said straight forward, but majority of readers decide the operation is an abortion. The woman of the couple decides she feels fine at the end of the story, and the reader never sees if they decide whether or not to get the operation.  This short story makes the reader feel sympathy for the couple. The hard decision of an abortion is a relatable dilemma for the average person. Having a child on accident is something that can happen to anyone either being careless or anyone by absolute chance. 

As a male, thinking of having this problem is one of the hardest decisions to make, especially if you are in the place of the male in this couple. Abortion is more common than people may think, “Twenty-one percent of all pregnancies in 2011 ended in abortion” (Guttmacher). He wants for her to have an abortion, but the woman, who in the end has the absolute final say on whether or not to have the operation, does not want an abortion. Since it is the woman’s body, the man cannot make the decision himself. He must have the absolute agreeance with the woman. If the tables were turned, where the man wants the baby and the woman does not, the woman has the right to get an abortion without the man’s permission, for example, “If a man's pregnant partner seeks to have an abortion, the father's consent isn't legally required” (FindLaw). This struggle of morals is something Hemmingway purposefully keyed into, he used this to draw more emotion from the reader and have this story have a bigger impact on reader.

Hills Like White Elephants gives both side’s views on being either pro-life or pro-abortion, however, in Doyle’s Joyas Volardores, the topic is only about life and its intricacies. Doyle does not give an argument for life per se, but he states facts about life and through this he uses hearts to talk about how every living being has a heart. Once you get deeper into the text, Doyle stops talking about literal hearts and shifts the language to talk about metaphorical hearts. He talks about humming birds dying because it is supposed to make the reader feel his heart and have emotion for these joyas volardores, meaning “flying jewels.” Doyle’s text makes the reader see and feel the literal and figurative heart; he talks about emotional topics like “the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children” and “the words I have something to tell you” (Doyle). The point of the story is to make the reader feel something at the end of the story, and to have realized the difference between the heart inside of us, and the moral heart that gives us sympathy for all living beings. Joyas Volardores wants you to have feeling while you read, and in doing this, the story has a greater connection to the reader.

Though both texts are written completely different by different authors, their message is the same. Joyas Volardores talks about how sacred and fragile life can be, and Hills Like White Elephants shows a couple deciding whether to have an operation. Hemingway’s text makes the reader struggle with the difficult conversation of abortions and feel sorrow for the couple that has this conversation as a reality. The way these texts go about spreading their message are completely different. Hills like White Elephants is almost only dialogue, but the message is never said outright. The reader is supposed to infer what the operation this couple is talking about. Once you find the meaning of the story, the dialogue is given a lot more purpose and you can see how this couple is struggling with the issue. However, Joyas Volardores has zero dialogue; Doyle is actually talking directly to the reader and this makes the text seem more personal to the reader. Doyle makes it well known that he is talking to you, the reader. He says, “You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant” (Doyle). Doyle and Hemmingway went about this topic with completely different stories, but both of them say just about the same thing.

Life is a very hard issue to write about, especially something as controversial as abortion. However, Hemmingway writes a great short story about it, without making a hard opinion on his personal stance on abortion. Hemmingway debates both sides of pro-life and pro-choice, and it gives the reader a decision for themselves to make. Doyle uses Joyas Volardores to express his opinions on the preciousness of life. Though he never speaks on abortion, his opinion and description on life shows he is sensitive to it. The way in which he writes shows that he sees the life in all living beings. Life is something that everyone cares about, that is why abortion is such a hard topic to talk about. People mistake pro-choice for anti-life, and that is where the controversy begins. However, those who are pro-choice are also see as someone who does not want a child to live a life of poverty. Hemmingway and Doyle are brave enough to write about life, and talk about abortions.
