Higher Expectations
As the American writer and photographer Diane Arbus once said “You see someone on the street, and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw.” This is an idealist concept in its entirety that all people notice is flaws because everyone is searching for perfection. The human flaw of longing and dreaming for perfection when it is unobtainable has been a reoccurring theme for many authors as well as the dangerous mindset of a majority of Americans depicted in popular culture music.This flaw proves fatal to characters such as Alymer in The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the woman in Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway. It also deems disastrous to Pink in her hit song “Who Knew?” when her unrealistic expectations of her relationship shatter.
In Hills like White Elephants written by Ernest Hemingway, the female character depicted is fantasizing about a perfection that they will never be able to achieve. “And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?”, “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?”, and “If I do it you won’t ever worry?”, These quotes are a classic examples of an idealist view (Mays 116-117). This woman is constantly trying to put her mind at ease and is creating an alternate reality in her head of what is to come of her relationship after the abortion. This woman repetitively worries that the man she loves won’t love her anymore unless she gets rid of the baby. She is reassuring herself and the man that their relationship will still be lovely and magical it was before they found out. This woman is trying to think of the perfect scenario after she gets an abortion. She thinks that getting rid of her baby will please her husband and they will be the ideal couple again like they were before the realization she was pregnant. In reality, they would never be able to be the ideal couple again because everything would be different for her. She does not really want the abortion but she believes the only way to get their “perfect” relationship back. “I won’t worry about that because it's perfectly simple.” “Then i’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.” When the man states that he will not worry anymore if she aborts the baby because it is simple, the girl says she will do it because she does not care about herself, in her ideal world the man whose baby she is pregnant with would say that she should. However, he never does and her vision of their perfect life after the baby is aborted is shattered (Mays 117). She realizes that they could not get rid of the baby and still be “perfect” after. It is unrealistic of her to believe it could all be the same after but she does because she wants that perfection.
In The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Aylmer was content with Georgina's birthmark before their marriage. After the couple got married, the birthmark became an omen for Aylmer. He thought of the birthmark as an evil sign his wife was not perfect and he proves he will do anything to get rid of it, even take her life. Aylmer refers to Georgiana’s birthmark on her cheek as being a “ visible mark of earthly imperfection”. This “mark of earthly imperfection" needs to be removed from his wife’s face because it taints her soul, as Aylmer put it. It is a sign of death, sins, sorrow and decay (Mays 213). Aylmer wanted to be the one to perfect his wife so he created a potion, the potion in which later would kill his wife. Aylmer wanted to badly to make this innocent blemish on her face go away, he disregarded the obvious warnings that it would end badly. His wife warned him, his experiments failing warned him but he wanted to change his wife to make her perfect regardless of the cost. His blatant disregard for his wife’s feelings and disregard for her life was a direct result of his need to perfect her.
Despite evidence from both short stories, Some may counter my argument in saying that perfectionism is good because it gives one something to strive for and a goal. However, this goal is tainted by the desperation. This is demonstrated in both the Hills like White Elephants when the woman is debating on having a dangerous abortion regardless of the risk and also in The Birthmark when Aylmer will do anything to rid his wife of the birthmark on her face despite the possible issues associated with his experiment.
In Pink’s song “Who Knew”, She sings about a broken dream and how she thought her life would turn out. In “Who Knew”, Pink says “You took my hand, you showed me how. You promised me you'd be around. Uh huh, that's right. I took your words, and I believed in everything you said to me”. Pink sings about how she believed her relationship would last and they would be the perfect couple (Pink). But, the perfect dream of having him and believing him when he said that he would stay with her was too good to be true because perfection is not obtainable. Also in the song Pink sings “If someone said three years from now. You'd be long gone.I'd stand up and punch them out. Cause they're all wrong.I know better 'cause you said forever, and ever. Who knew?”. Pink sings about how she never thought he would leave her (Pink). She could not imagine that scenario because in her mind they were the ideal couple and they would be together forever. The ideal relationship would of lasted but it does not and this is where idealism is proven to be fatal. Unrealistic expectations generally end up the exact opposite of what is longed for.
Perfectionism in definition is craving the ideal in situations where the ideal is not realistic nor able to be achieved. Aylmer in The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the woman in Hills like White Elephants both strive to obtain some sort of justification in their lives. They want to perfect the situation and\or their partners. Aylmer wants to perfect his wife Georgiana and the woman wants to perfect her relationship with the man who is the father of her unborn baby. This woman wants to secure their relationship and make it the ideal situation after the baby is aborted. Pink, the singer of the song “Who Knew?” sings similarly about the idea of craving an unrealistic perfection. Many people yearn for something they cannot have because the situation they are in is not the best. Everyone is searching for the best and the most pure but this goal is imaginary.
Works Cited
Mays, Kelly. The Norton Introduction To Literature. 11th ed. Las Vegas: W.W. Norton, 2011.
Print. 27 Apr. 2015.
Pink -Who Knew Lyrics. 1 Jan. 2006. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
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