ABSTRACT
In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” miscommunication and emotional sterility prevail; a man tries to talk his lover into having an abortion, but the communication is so poor between the two, they cannot even mention the word abortion never mind resolve their dispute. Exasperated, the female cries out: “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?” (Short Stories 277). Echoing Hemingway, “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?” likewise involves a relationship at a critical juncture yet departs remarkably from the earlier story. Whereas little happens in “Hills”-the characters drink and talk around their problems at a train station-Carver’s story is atypically action-packed. The protagonist argues with his wife, leaves and gets drunk, gambles, is punched out by a mugger, and then, returning home, has sexual intercourse. While silence speaks to the emotional impoverishment of Hemingway’s couple, in “Will You Please?”’s conclusion, silence involves lovemaking, reconciliation, and evolution.
