Responsibilities of having children

Children, whenever there seems to be trouble, turn to their parents for help. A hug from Mommy can scare away any nightmares, can assure hat everything will be alright and nothing is really worth worrying. Although, this need for safety burdens the parents, it is up to them to protect their child, to answer questions they might not always have an answer for, but above all stay calm, because when a problem is big enough to worry Daddy, things are really going wrong. This is presented in "Incarnations of Burned Children" by David Foster Wallace. A toddler is accidentally burned with boiling water and the Daddy moves around frantically trying to help its child while the Mommy is useless and only manages to pray. In the end it is unsure whether the baby dies or not, but one thing is clear, the parents failed their most important chore: assuring their child's wellbeing. It's not that they were completely reckless parents, it was a mere distraction, a few seconds looking away. The real responsibility comes in after the accident, when the Daddy have to be brave, ignore the screams and act efficiently, because Daddy's here and nothing truly bad can happen if he is, right? Regardless of how responsible Daddy could've been, sometimes things happen that just can't be handled or understood. This is why the Daddy would later be mad at himself for wanting to smoke a cigarette.
Perhaps his momentary distraction while trying to help his child is the only explanation he can offer for the death of his child, and having someone or something to blame makes dealing with the guilt easier.

"Hills Like White Elephants" written by Ernest Hemingway, presents another type of responsibility: choosing whether or not to bring a child into the world. The "American" and a girl sit at a train station in Spain, sipping on cold beer and awkwardly commenting the setting, the hills, according to the girl, look like white elephants. The American says that if she simply goes through with the operation, things will go back to the way they were before, they would be happy and unworried, they would have no responsibilities. The girl, though, is unsure, choosing to abort a baby is a huge decision to make, not to be taken lightly. In a way, both characters present opposite poles, the American rushes the decision and takes the easy way out while the girl ponders on the idea a lot more, maybe the course to take is to assume responsibility for her actions and keep the child, despite the fact that the American argues that an abortion would be the wisest choice. Nevertheless, there seems to be a certain submissiveness in the girl that overpowers her sense of responsibility and it would appear that the final decision won't be made by her. Clearly there are other factors to be taken into consideration, judging by the relationship the characters have it's safe to assume that they are close, but probably not socially accepted and maybe even an affair, which would add a sense of social responsibility (what is proper) and explain why the American is so anxious to have the operation done.

Both stories present two types of responsibility, in the first it's about taking care of a child and ensuring its safety, while in the second it's about deciding wether or not it is a good idea to have a child at all, taking into consideration all the economic and social implications. What's also interesting is the way women are portrayed in both stories. In both, women are shown as submissive and slightly less competent than their male counterparts, even though they share the same responsibilities. Parenthood is a complex matter, starting from the moment the baby is conceived to actually taking care of the child, and, in a way, these two stories show different kinds of responsibilities and conflicts that may appear through the different stages.