, informs the girls that “this isn’t the beach” (150), Sammy immediately blurts out, “I quit.” “The girls, and who’d blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say ‘I quit,’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero” (151). Sammy believes that because he is male, and the girls are the typical female who will be flattered be him saving them, that this would be the wise thing to do in the situation. Despite his thinking, however, his actions simply come across to the reader as something that is done because he is a male and believes that he will get somewhere with the girls if he sticks up and defends them by quitting his job (Kakutani, par. 7).Another male character that comes across to the reader as someone that is self-absorbed and a male chauvinist is the American in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.” This is due to the difficulty that Hemingway finds in writing and portraying a female character. “Hemingway favored a more simplistic approach to convey his view of women, portraying obvious empathy for his female characters, while his male characters and protagonists appear to be more self absorbed” (Essays). Hemingway portrays Jig as a girl that does not think for herself, and is doing everything that the American tells her to do: “‘The girl looked at the bead curtain. ‘They’ve painted something on it,’ she said. ‘What does it say?’‘Anis del Toro. It’s a drink.’‘Could we try it?’ . . .‘Do you want it with water?’‘I don’t know,’ the girl said. ‘Is it good with water?’‘It’s all right.’‘You want them with water?’ asked the woman.‘Yes, with water’” (211, 212)When the readers first meet Jig and the American, ...
