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How Environment in particular society affects characters living


Pitchaya Areekarnlert
Mahidol University International Demonstration School

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Abstract
This research is about how the environment in the particular society affects characters
personality, perspective, and attitude toward the way of their living. In this research we are
focusing on three short stories, which are The Last Leaf by O. Henry, Hills Like White
Elephant by Ernest Hemingway, and What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie.
In the first short story The Last Leaf, we look at how O. Henry uses the society along with
direct and indirect environment that the characters create to affect the characters personality,
perspective and attitude in both physically and mentally toward the way of living. In the next
short story Hills Like White Elephant, we examine how Hemingway uses social issues to
portray teenagers staying together without getting married issue and their easily changeable
life style to illustrate the changes in their perspective, personality, and relationship toward
their existing. And the last short story What You Pawn I Will Redeem is concentrate on how
environment in specific society affects characteristic and attitude of characters and makes the
characters adapt themselves in the society.

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According to Alexis Carrel (1912), Hard conditions of life are indispensable to
bringing out the best in human personality. Hard conditions can cause from many different
kinds of reasons. For instance, the sufferings may originate from the society that we live in,
environment, or our health, etc. From this quote we can make some connections between
three stories, The Last Leaf by O. Henry, Hills Like White Elephant by Ernest
Hemingway, and What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie. In the first story, The
Last Leaf, Jonesy is an artist girl who has pneumonia and believes that she is going to die
when the last leaf falls. She faces the hard condition, which is confronting with the malady
and that makes her attitude toward the way of her thinking differently. The second story Hills
Like White Elephant, the girl is being pregnant and her relationship with her boyfriend is
going down. At first the girls personality appears helpless, confused, and indecisive, but after
she has to face with some hard conditions in her life she changes her personality to be wiser
toward the way of living. And In the third story What You Pawn I Will Redeem, Jacksons
hard conditions is being Indian homeless and left out in his own homeland because of the
Americans invading long times ago. From these hard conditions he faces causing him to be
adaptable with different kind of people and knows how to deal with white people. Therefore,
according to The Last Leaf, Hills Like White Elephant, and What You Pawn I Will
Redeem the authors use environment and problem in specific society to develop characters
personality, perspective, and attitude toward the way of living. The information below will
help support my point of view.
Firstly, The Last Leaf, O. Henry uses the society along with direct and indirect
environment that the characters create to affect the characters personality, perspective and
attitude in both physically and mentally toward the way of living. According from The Last
Leaf maintain that They had met at the table d'hte of an Eighth Street "Delmonico's," and
found their tastes in art, salad and fashion so congenial that the joint studio resulted(p5) we
can conclude that Jonesy and Sue live in the same artist society and they found their common

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taste in art cause their attitude toward each other to be understanding and supporting each
other and ends up share studio together. Also, Jonesy is an artist. Artist is creative, impulsive,
sensitive and visionary. Although they are creative, it may not necessarily be expressed with
paint and canvas. Creativity can also be expressed by an artistic personality type with data and
systems (123 test, 2015). Therefore, when she is sick she portrays herself as the ivy leaf which
means eternal life according to the Art of mourning (2006) and comes to believe that the
leaves are herself. If the last leaf falls, it means her life will also come to the end. From this
way of thinking illustrates that the artist society affects characters personality to be
imaginative. Next, sick condition can affect characters perspective and individuality to be
discouraged, gloomy, and despondent toward her life. In the other way, these behaviors also
have a ruthless affect on illness. According to the Science Direct (2012), healing environment
can contribute to reducing errors, falls, and infections. Also, it can enhance the privacy,
comfort, and control. From this research we can deduce that good and bad environment have
influence on peoples attitude and characteristic. Then, Jonesys sick condition causes Mr.
Behrmans inspiration. From the story states that Mr. Behrman was a failure in art. Forty
years he had held the brush without getting near. He had been always about to paint a
masterpiece, but had never yet begun it (p6) shows Mr. Behrmans attitude toward art. When
Jonesy gets sick he has the inspiration to help her by drawing the last leaf on wall. Sadly, he
ends up die because of pneumonia and his sacrifice has helped Jonesys life. To sum up, in the
Last Leaf O. Henry presents the atmosphere in both directly and indirectly to affect
characters personality and viewpoint toward the way of living in both bodily and spiritually.
Secondly, Hills like White Elephant, Hemingway uses social issues to portray
teenagers staying together without getting married issue and their easily changeable life style
to illustrate the changes in their perspective, personality, and relationship toward the way of
their living by describing them through Hills and imply conversation. The plot overview of

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this story is the man and the girl who we know little information about them waiting for the
train to go to Madrid at the train station. They decide to kill the time by order some drinks.
The man tries to convince the girl to get an abortion because the girl is being pregnant.
From this story we can see that the mans life style is changeable toward the society and
affects his personality to be the person who likes freedom and doesnt like any obligation.
When he knows that the girl is pregnant, so he immediately reject the baby. Also, he wants the
girl to get the abortion by speaking in circumlocution and use many implications of words
trying to keep his original characters that are knowledgeable, worldly, and always in control
of him and the situation at hand. For example, he states, if you dont want to you dont have
to. I wouldnt have you do it if you didnt want to. But I know its perfectly simple(p12).
This line shows that he tries to convince the girl to get abortion and trying to keep his
character. To conclude, society where the man lives affects his personality and way of
thinking. Next, the man thinks that abortion is the only thing that affect their love illustrate
that the mans personality is narrow-minded and love being free are affected by the influence
of their freedom life style and staying together without getting married issue. According to the
Wikipedia (2015), having an abortion at a time when abortions were absolutely illegal,
considered immoral, and usually dangerous, therefore we assume that the man has hidden this
side of him and he is very selfish, cruel and callous. He has a superficial problem solving
because he only thinks that the baby is the one reason that make their relationship unhappy as
we can see in their conversation. The girl said And you think then well be all right and be
happy. And the man repliesI know we will. Yon dont have to be afraid. Ive known lots of
people that have done it (p12). So, the problems that the man faces influence the man to
show another personality in him. Moreover, Hemingway uses the teenagers staying together
without getting married issue and their easily changeable life perceptive to demonstrate the
change in their relationship. From the text, the girl states But if I do it, then it will be nice
again if I say things are like white elephants, and youll like it?(p12). This line expresses

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according to the Spark notes (2012), the girl has already retracted her previous comment that
the surrounding hills look like white elephants, hinting that she wants to keep the baby instead
of having an abortion. Still hoping to save their broken relationship, the girl asks her
boyfriend whether things between them will return to the way they used to be if she goes
through with the abortion. Her indecision and desire to placate the man demonstrate her
dependence on him. At the same time, however, the mere fact that she asks the question may
imply that she believes that nothing can save their relationship. To conclude, Ernest
Hemingway demonstrates the different in characters personality, perspective, and
relationship by using teenager staying together without getting married and their vacillate in
life style in Hills Like White Elephant.
Lastly, Sherman Alexie who wrote What You Pawn I Will Redeem uses an
environment in specific society to affect characteristic and attitude of characters and makes
the characters adapt themselves in the society. In this case Jackson is an American Indian as
we can see from the text suggests, Im a Spokane Indian boy, an Interior Salish, and my
people have lived within a hundred- mile radius of Spokane, Washington, for at least ten
thousand years(p14). Americans Indians are considered to be people whose pre-Columbian
ancestors were indigenous to the lands within the nation's modern boundaries (Wikipedia,
2015). The nature of American Indian live with tribes, help each other hunt animal for food
that first asked permission of the animal's spirit and traditional culture play an important role
in their living (World panthesis, 1997). So, we can infer that Indian lives mostly depend on
nature for survival and cultural these kinds of society cause American Indian personality to be
simple and easy self satisfy. Also, their attitude toward each other is good natured and loving
comrade. After, the story mentions I grew up in Spokane, moved to Seattle twenty-three
years ago for college, flunked out after two semesters, worked various blue- and bluer-collar
jobs, married two or three times, fathered two or three kids, and then went crazy(p14)
illustrating that Jackson changes his environment and society. He moves to Seattle to work

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and study and feel that he is asocial disorder fit. Living in the new surrounding he begins to
change his attitude toward the way of living. He studies and works for money, but in the
previous society he only does physically experiences and that has a bad affect on his new
family to be failed. This environment forces Jackson to struggle in the competitive society.
Finally, Jackson fails in surviving in new environment because people who have lower
potential since in the beginning will not be successful over the people who have higher
potential and Jackson becomes homeless unconditionally. Being in homeless society him
again changes the society and his personality is influenced by the society. He initially eats
free, lives free and feels happy with his new skill, as we can see from the text Jackson states
Being homeless is probably the only thing Ive ever been good at. I know where to get the
best free food. Ive made friends with restaurant and convenience-store managers who let me
use their bathrooms (p14). He changes his attitude toward the way of living. For example, he
does not work hard for food like before, but begs from others. Then, when it comes to the
point that Jackson sees his grandmothers regalia dress in the pawnshop it reminds him about
his grandmother, his culture, and his American Indian society. He changes his attitude about
money and realizes that money is important to redeem the regalia dress. He tries to collect
money, but ends up spend on other things. At last, Jackson is unable to pay for the dress, but
given it almost free by pawn owner. According to Crazy Cow Trading Post (2015), regalia
dress is a celebration of heritage and traditions, and a way for Native Americans to connect
with each other while keeping their culture alive through dance, song and storytelling.
Therefore, Jackson tries to draw the connection between his grandmother and him closer and
understand his American Indian culture and personality. To conclude, the environment in
different society affect personality and attitude of characters and makes the characters adjust
to the society.

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In conclusion, The Last Leaf, Hills Like White Elephant, and What You Pawn I
Will Redeem O. Henry, Hemingway, and Alexie develop the characters personality,
perspective, and attitude regarding to how they live by portraying the particular society area
and environment.

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References
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http://artofmourning.com/2006/01/17/symbolism-meaning-plants/
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http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alexiscarr385840.html
Crazy Crow Trading Post LLC. (2014). Men's Northern Traditional Pow Wow Regalia
Gallery. Retrieved from http://www.crazycrow.com/photos/native-american-mensnorthern-traditional-01.php
Daniel N. Paul. (2010). Christopher Columbus Opens the Door to European Invasion of the
Americas. Retrieved from http://www.danielnpaul.com/ChristopherColumbus.html
Free Psychological Test. (2015). Artistic Personality type. Retrieved from
https://www.123test.com/artistic-personality-type/
Science Direct. (2012). Healing environment: A review of the impact of physical
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Sparknotes. (2011). Hills Like White Elephants: Analysis of Major Characters. Retrieved
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Spindler, G. D., & Spindler, L. S. (1957). American Indian Personality Types and Their
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Warpaths2peacepipes. (2012). Native American Culture. Retrieved from
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Wikipedia. (2015). Hills like White Elephants. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_Like_White_Elephants

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Wikipedia.(2015). Native American In The United States. Retrivrd from


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States
World Pantheism. (1996). North American Indians: the spirituality of nature. Retrieved from
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