The Battle for Power in the Garden of Eden

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The struggle for power in the world, in life, in jobs or in relationships has been an ongoing theme in humanity. Many philosophers and thinkers have explored humanity's desire to be in control. Hemingway was one author to explore woman's desire (during the early 1900's) to be in control of, or at least equal to, her husband. In "The Garden of Eden" by Ernest Hemingway, the anti-heroine, Catherine, goes to great lengths to gain power in her relationship with her husband. Her need to be equal causes her to `make herself into a boy', keep secrets from her husband, try to control him in various ways, introduce another woman into their relationship and burn all of David's stories. All of these acts also eventually lead her into insanity.

In Hemingway's novel, the character Catherine is obsessed with making herself into a boy. In the beginning of the story she only wants to be a boy at night when they are together alone. However, as the story progresses, she begins to "make the change" in public and talks to people about it. She cuts her hair so short that it looks like a boy's haircut. The symbolism behind her actions is that she wants to be equal to David, her husband. As a woman, she is different and underneath her husband but as a man, she feels that she is equal to her husband. In bed, she wants to take over the man's role and make David the woman so that she can be in control and be more powerful than him.

Throughout their relationship, Catherine tries more and more to control David. She forces him into cutting his hair and dying it like hers. She wants him to be just as darkly tanned as she is and drink the same drinks he drinks. She begins an argument over his clippings of reviews of his books and tells him she wishes h...

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...erine, their inequalities. They are just one more thing that makes David better than her and she hates it. She detests the fact that he has a job and is good at something. She repeats throughout the novel that she cannot write and she wishes she could. Before she leaves David, she says that she is no writer, nor creative, but she is practical and that is why she is going to publish David's book about her and have someone finish it for her if he will not.

Hemingway's artistic portrayal of the fight for power and control in a Catherine and David's relationship exemplifies the age old fight between men and women for power. Catherine knows that she does not have as much power as David and therefore tries in every way her mind can grasp to obtain as much control in their relationship as she can. This leads her to sickness and eventually destroys their relationship.

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