Isolation and Defeat: Comparing and Contrasting Hemingway and Cather’s Protagonists

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this is a popular adage not only for its timelessness, but also because it encompasses our stance on the idea of solitude. For this essay, I used Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” to present perceptions of human isolation. In essence, both authors have shown that the idea of human isolation can come in many forms, and not just by physical separation. In Hemingway’s “Hills,” the protagonist dealt

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with isolation in the form of a conflict of interest with her partner. Cather’s “Paul’s Case,” meanwhile, showed our protagonist struggling with isolation against a more passive, but pervasive environment. By identifying the similarities and differences between the stories, we can have a clearer and deeper understanding of human isolation.

The main point of comparison between Hemingway’s girl and Cather’s Paul is that their isolation has blocked them from achieving self-fulfillment or happiness. Readers

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get a sense that both characters were unhappy with their current situation, and that their environment kept them from their goals. The protagonists have also shown symptoms of detachment from their immediate worlds, furthering their feeling of isolation.
How a certain character acts and what guides their

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decisions tells a lot about traits and values, and forms the backbone of a story. Both the girl and Paul were shown to hold a power of their own with regards to their environment and the people with whom they interacted. The girl’s power lay in her relationship with the American. We get a sense that they were lovers through the topics of their conversations: their being together, their past and future as indicated in the dialogue

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“We’ll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.”

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Paul’s power derived from how he succeeded in calming his mind and body whenever he was watching “the pageant,” versus when he was at the center of “bare walls and naked floors.”

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Although their struggles were rooted in different spheres – the girl’s in a stage of relationship, while Paul’s in freedom of lifestyle – their feeling of isolation were likewise aggravated by a conflict with their environment. This

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tells us that external conflicts can increase a person’s sense of isolation, and this conflict can come from active or passive forces, as in the American and Cordelia Street respectively.
Both characters have been defeated by their isolation at the end of the stories. The manner with which unhappiness was shown in each character was different: the girl showed her unhappiness subtly –

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if we analyze her conversations with the American, we can see that their exchanges were rife with contradictions, disagreements and double-meanings.

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In contrast, Paul’s unhappiness was more apparent in the way he acted in certain environments. In Cordelia street

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and in school, he appeared agitated and nervous, while the opposite was true when he was in Carnegie Hall and New York. Their happiness was also conditional. The American professed full devotion to the girl, but only if she underwent the unnamed operation. In Paul’s case, it meant his facing his fear of the unknown, which he successfully conquered for a short time. Both were left unfulfilled by the end of the story, which tells us that isolation can sever character development.

Note that the point of view chosen by the authors factors greatly in our understanding of a character. The style of narration – the presence or absence of dialogue, the number of information directly fed through the text, etc. –

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also influences characterization. Hemingway and Cather’s styles are contrastive, yet they succeed in helping us evaluate human isolation in its many possible forms. By looking at the protagonists’ situation from different angles, we are able to paint a clearer picture of the nature of human isolation.

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