During the late 19th and early 20th century, literature depicted male-female relationships as a battle between each other of who is in control. Such stories as "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Hills Like White Elephants" showed the power and manipulation of men and the will to be free and independent of women during those times. Yet, as you will read on during this essay, the relationships have been battles of mind games and trickery towards each other.
             In "Hills Like White Elephants", Ernest Hemingway showed the manipulation of the "man" towards the "girl" to have an operation that was not stated. The dialogue between them was innocent and persuasive toward the girl while she was trying to fight away from the control and decide for herself what she wanted to do. Also used was guilt toward the girl as seen by this line, " That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy" (Hemmingway 2). He almost blames her for whatever the mistake is and uses the manipulation to bring her down and almost controls her thinking.
             "The Yellow Wallpaper" also uses manipulation and control from the men. Charlotte Gilman uses these two means by having the husband, John, choosing what is right for the wife and forbids her to make choices, which he thinks will hurt her. Even though guilt is particularly not shown in this story the dialogue is almost the same. " You know the place is doing you good," (Gilman 693) is the line used when the wife is almost begging the husband to change the wallpaper and that she hated the room.
             The powers of gender used in both stories were similar also. Both constantly used the word "girl" to describe the female in the story. Hemingway refrained from giving the woman a name and continuously called her girl. And Gilman had the husband call the wife "l
             ...