The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, by Charles Bukowski

Analysis

Audiobook

Tales of Ordinary Madness, Wikipedia

Factotum, Wikipedia

Factotum, movie

Barfly, Wikipedia

Barfly, movie

Tales of Ordinary Madness, movie

Charles Bukowski chez Bernard Pivot

SUMMARY, by Begoña Devis

Despite the nice title, that story is in fact a very sad one, very Bukowski-esque. The most beautiful woman in town is also the unhappiest. She feels her beauty is a curse, believing no one can see beyond the obvious: her perfect body, her attractive and unique face. That’s why she attacks herself, constantly at war with herself and with everyone else; and even having found someone capable of seeing her inner beauty, and with whom she could perhaps be happy, she doesn’t allow it, probably because she doesn’t feel worthy of it, and finally decides she can no longer live in a world that seems too cruel and heartless to her. Her soul is too sensitive to bear it, and she’s also too angry, too young and too immature to have the ability to see things any other way and give herself a chance.
    In a few sentences, Bukowski gives us very important details about this beautiful girl so we can understand her behaviour. What happiness could she feel as a child in her family with an alcoholic father, who probably plunged them into poverty and abandonment? How could she believe she deserved happiness after being abandoned by her mother along with her four sisters following her father’s death? How could she trust others if all she received was envy from her sisters and sexual abuse from men? Even during the years she spent in a convent with her sisters, she didn’t live in peace; she was too beautiful not to be envied and rejected. It was only natural that she hated her beauty and decided to put an end to it once and for all.

 
PERSONAL OPINION
 
Childhood abandonment, alcoholism, and the sensitivity hidden behind rudeness and outbursts are recurring themes in Bukowski, who narrates his own miserable life through his stories. This one, coming from its author, is as heartbreaking as it is predictable, though always interesting to read, due to his direct, abrupt, and at times almost pornographic style, which makes it unique and compelling.
    Aside from the story itself, I personally —although I understand it couldn’t be any other way— have always found it deeply unfair that an unhappy childhood leads to a difficult life, while a happy one greatly contributes to making adulthood much more enjoyable. It’s like a win-or-nothing game, and only a few manage to turn things around, reconcile with their past, and live a full and happy life despite a difficult start. This wasn’t the case for the most beautiful woman in town.

QUESTIONS

-Cass was misusing her beauty. What do you think of working as a model? Is it a job as any other one, or it isn't a job you wouldn't like for your children? Is it a sexist job?
-Would you like to live for a time in a convent? Do you think it would be a benefit for people who lead a stressing life?
-What can be the reason of a self-inflicted wound? Has it anything to do with masochism?
-After making love, the narrator asked the girl her name. What would be the first questions you ask in a first date?
-"Once you accept a drink, you create your own trouble". How true / sexist is this sentence, in your opinion?

VOCABULARY

zap, of age, forged, fair, dramatics, schitzi, elephant ear, bail, fad, hustling, haggle, wearing, pecker, pace, shack, offhand

Hills like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

 

Biography, by Remedios Benéitez

Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961)

He was the second of six children. His father was a doctor and his mother a music teacher. His father’s interests in history and literature, as well as outdoorsy (fishing and hunting) became a lifestyle for Ernest.

In 1916 he graduated for high school and began his writing career as a reporter for The Kansas City Star. Six months later he joined the Ambulance Corps in First Word War and worked as an ambulance driver in the Italian front, where he was seriously wounded by a mortal shell. He was awarded by the Silver Medal.

Back in America, he continued his writing career working for the Toronto Star. In 1921, he became a Toronto Star reporter in Paris. There he published his first books called Three Stories and Three Poems and In Our Time. In Paris he met Gertrude Stein, who introduced him into the circle that she called The Lost Generation. During that time, he wrote several books.

Hemingway participate in the Spanish Civil War and took part in the D-Day landings during the invasion of France in World War II. His military experiences were emulated in For Whom the Bell Tolls and in several other stories.

He settled near Havana, Cuba, where he wrote his best-known work, The Old Man and the Sea (1953), for which he won a Pulitzer Price and the Nobel Prize in Literature.

War wounds, two plane crashes, four marriages and several affairs took their toll on Hemingway hereditary predispositions and contributed to his declining health. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and insomnia in his later years. His mental condition was exacerbated by chronic alcoholism, diabetes and liver failure.

He committed suicide in 1961.

 

Analysis of Hills Like White Elephants

It was published in 1927. The story focuses on a conversation between an American man and a young woman, described as a “girl” at a Spanish train station in the Valley of Ebro while they are waiting for a train to Madrid. The girl compares the nearby hills to white elephants.

While the couple drinks beer, they discuss an “operation” that the man wants the girl to have. You can guess that they are talking about an abortion.

Hills like White Elephants at the Wikipedia

Cliff notes about Hills...

Spark notes about Hills...

More analysis of Hills...

Some more things about Hemingway:

He never went to the University and he admired Sherwood Anderson (we are going to read a story by him).

Rules he followed composing a story:

1.Direct treatment of the “thing”, without evasion or cliché.

2.The use of absolutely no word that does not contribute to the general design.

3.Fidelity to the rhythms of natural speech.

4.The natural object is always the adequate symbol.

His method follows the principle of the iceberg: “There’s seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate, and it only strengthens your iceberg: it’s the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because he doesn’t know it, then there’s a hole in the story.

 

QUESTIONS

What is the meaning of “white elephant”?

Why do you think the story is situated in a railway station?

What city do you think is the station? How do you know?

What can you tell us about absinthe? And about licorice?

Describe the man.

Describe the girl. Why is she named “Jig”?

What do these symbols mean, according to your opinion?

Anís del Toro

beads curtain

river

hills

…

Do you think they’re having a casual, formal, tense, relaxed… dialogue? Why?

What can you deduce from this sentence said by the man: “I know a lot of people that had done it”?

Why did the man carry the bags to the other tracks? Whose bags are these, his, hers or theirs?

In the end, are they going to Madrid together? How do you know?

According to critics there are 4 possibilities. Which one do you think is the most probable? Why?

1) they will have the abortion and break up

2) they will have the abortion and stay together

3) they will have the baby and break up

4) they will have the baby and stay together.

 

What do you think of Hemingway’s style?

Do you think this one it’s a macho or a feminist story?

Have you read anything else by Hemingway, or seen any film based on his stories?

Delicate debate: What opinions do you have about the problem of abortion?