Paper 2

Ben Williams

Mrs. Brady

EGL 102

28 October 2011

Say What You Need To Say

Since the beginning of time, the best way to express yourself and your ideas would be to actually present them to viewers. Rather than holding your ideas in, revealing them is not only the best way to express yourself, but also a great burden off yourself. “Say what you need to say”, best describes that theory, it is the best way to express yourself, your feelings, and ideas. In A&P by John Updike, and Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway the main characters display how keeping your thoughts inside does not help. In “Say” a song by John Mayor the song proves that expressing yourself is important.

            A&P is about this boy named Sammy who had fantasies about these three girls that he admired and adored. The reason he adored them was his own, it could have been their skimpy clothing and temptation from puberty was to powerful to not see the girls as goddesses. Maybe it was the fact that the three girls were socially different from there dressing, and may have triggered a interest in his mind to also be socially different. Whatever reason Sammy had he felt that they should not be looked upon differently or spoke to in such a manor they were approached. What Sammy did was speak up and express his feelings and emotions, and said what he needed to say. As seen on page 413 Sammy says “I quit” then the boss asks again to make sure and Sammy then say “You didn’t have to embarrass them”. He quit his job to stand up for the girls, and doing so he expressed his emotion and feelings toward the situation. Another quote to show that he said what he needed to say was on page 414 when he stated “… and my stomach kind of fell as I felt the world was going to be to me hereafter”. This meaning he knew that life was going to be hard and society was not accepting what the girls did, he stood up and expressed his emotion toward the situation, and quit since no one would see where he is coming from he acted letting everyone know he is right in his mind.

            Hills Like White Elephants is about a couple who are planning to have an abortion, but decide to discuss about going through with the plan at a train station. The female wants to be ensured about having the baby would be fine and wants to hear the man say he wants the child, but the man obviously wants the abortion but doesn’t want to come out and say do it he rather keep saying don’t do it if you don’t want to but keeps saying it will get better and be better with an abortion. The female does not say what she needs to say. What she does do is hint to the man about the baby and tries to get him say what she wants to hear but never comes out and speaks her mind, and eventually she gets aggravated and just wants to get it done. On page 116 she mentions “Then I’ll do it because I don’t care about me” hoping the guy will say no don’t do it I want the child but instead he just like I care about you so there she does not mean what she really wants to say. In just about every page she mentions the hills that look like white elephants, which is here way of trying to discuss the baby and again get the man to just say what she wants to hear, but here not saying what she needs to and she keeps beating around the bush makes her get aggravated. On page 117 she eventually gets fed up with him not answering the way she wants him to answer so she says please seven times and then say stop talking, then man hushed for a few then mentioned something about the abortion again and she said “I’ll scream”. The female became angered because the man obviously wanted the abortion, which she did not and was hoping he would tell her not to get it, and also the fact that he was not giving her straight up answers, so she was losing her mind and about scream out of anger.

            The song “Say” by John Mayor is the topic exactly. He is saying “say what you need to say” and basically do not keep things cooped up inside you. He wants people to understand that it is that important to do so and makes a good catchy song to prove it. In his song the chorus is “Say what you need to say”, which again is the topic in deed. In his first verse he says “Take all of your wasted honor, Every little past frustration, Take all your so called problems, Better put them in quotations”. He basically is saying don’t hold your expressions in let everything out, all the things you did that you might think is a waste but should release just in case it is a good thing, and all your past frustrations and problems to put them in quotations or speak them and not to hold anger in let it go and talk about it so you don’t do anything drastic. The next verse he states “You better know that in the end, It's better to say too much, Then never to say what you need, to say again”, basically that you should not die with any secrets let them out and express yourself before it is to late the more you say won’t hurt anyone but the less you say will hurt you. His last verse is “Even if your hands are shaking, And your faith is broken, Even as the eyes are closing, Do it with a heart wide open”, which again mainly means even if you nervous and you lost all faith, and before you sleep or are dying or just ready to give in, express yourself, your feelings, your love, and heart (“Say” John Mayor).

            People have learned that to advance in life whether it is creations or emotions that expressing yourself is the best way to do so. John Mayor’s song “Say” summed up the topic perfectly. In the story A&P Sammy expressed himself by saying what he needed to say, this basically helped him grow and develop into a man, who made his own decisions and stand up for what he feels is right and spoke up to do so. As for the female in Hill Like White Elephants she never spoke up but in fact she beat around the bush hoping someone would hear her call or the man say what she wanted to hear basically. Once he didn’t she got aggravated and wanted to scream, if she would have expressed her true feelings she may have felt different and better than she did, so remember no matter what “Say What You Need To Say” as John Mayor would say.

WORK CITED PAGE

ALISON BOOTH. THE INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE. :W. W. NORTON

01/29/2010

Mayor, John.  “Say.”  Single. 11/27/2007