1. Thesis statement Hemingway’s dialogue reveals the difficult nature of a relationship between a man and a woman, as it focusses on incompatibility of their relationship and their different values on abortion. The reader witnesses a deep conflict between them on the issue as the decision will affect both their relationship and the rest of their lives. 2. Plot summary The plot of the story is very simple. A couple is situated on a hot summers day less than an hour at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train to Madrid. They are presumably both American, although only the man is presented as such. In the story’s less than 1500 words their dialogue takes up most of the space and few major actions take place …show more content…
The story is set in the 1920ies in what has been termed The Jazz Age in which individualism was on the rise. The time period was also characterised by a post-war emptiness and cynicism. As such, the story deals with loss of meaningful life, with the sterility and vacuity of the modern world and with the crucial necessity of taking responsibility for the quality of one's own life (Yanling, p 108). The nature of the story’s dialogue tangibly represents the above mentioned time period emptiness and …show more content…
In this mode the narrator is someone outside the story being omniscient (Abrams, p.301). Nevertheless, the author as the narrator in this story gives the reader virtually no access to the couple’s thoughts and does not even interpret the emotional quality of their words or movements by using adverbs; he simply records. Hemingway termed his own literary writing style The Iceberg Theory, a method in which he held back key details of his stories. He carefully detected and omitted all the words that did not work, keeping only the words that were of highest importance to his story, and leaving readers to sift through the remaining dialogue and bits of narrative on their own (Yanling, p 109). There are no descriptions of the couple’s real names, their occupations or any physical attributes. He further omits dialogue tags (she/he said) and skips any internal monologues. The story has a documentary style with sparse wording which makes the language restraint, intensified and precise. The author seems to be indifferent both to the characters and to the reader; he pretends to be merely an objective observer content to report without comment the words and actions of the protagonists (Yanling, p 108). The reader is on the basis of her or his own interpretations forced to piece together the facts of the difficulties in the couples disjointed conversation (Yanling, p
The main characters’ conflict over not wanting the same things in life is the root of the women’s disillusionment. The theme is furthered by the complication of the antagonist manipulation of the Jig’s feelings for him. Similar to Cisneros’s written work, Hemingway uses the narrative point of view to illuminate the growing disillusionment the women feels about not being able to have everything if she terminates the pregnancy. Hemingway leads the audience to this conclusion when the protagonist states “no, we can’t it isn’t ours anymore… Once they take it away, you never get it back” when referring to her disappointment that the antagonist will not change his mind and they can no longer have everything they ever wanted
Hemingway also uses immorality as the central idea. The American is trying to convince the girl to abort: ‘“I have known lots of people that have done it…. ‘But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants…‘I’ll love it” I just cannot think about it” (596,597). Here one sees how the man manipulates the girl.
Above all, Hemingway wants to make the reader understand how one person’s selfishness and needs can manage to manipulate another one by pretending to care. He also proves how women at times can be easily influenced by the people they love. They are tricked into believing they are everything to them. He shows a couple’s different point of views and their inability to understand and listen one another. For the most part, Hemingway send the message that everything is possible. A woman does not need a man’s approval for anything. Women are successful, strong and can overcome the biggest things in life.
Hemingway presents takes the several literary styles to present this short story. Hemingway’s use of Foreshadowing, Pathos, Imagery and Personification allows the reader to enter the true context of the frustration and struggle that the couples face. Although written in the 1920’s it the presents a modern day conflict of communication that millions of couples face. At first glance the beautiful landscape of the Barcelonian hillside in which Jig refers to frequently throughout the text appears to have taken the form of White Elephants. The Americans’ response to Jigs’ observation was less than enthusiastic as he provides a brief comment and continues on with his cerveza. This was but the first of the many verbal jousts to come between Jig and the American. The metaphorical inferences in those verbal confrontations slowly uncover the couple’s dilemma and why they may be on the waiting for the train to Madrid.
In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” the lives of Jig and the American, the main characters, are put on display for a brief period of time. Jig and the man have had a romantic relationship for quite some time, and now their future together is in jeopardy. The impregnation of Jig has caused the American to pressure her into getting an abortion. We find these two individuals in the Valley of the Ebro. Traveling from Barcelona to Madrid, the couple takes these few minutes to discuss the future of their baby. Jig now must make one of the most important decisions of her life – to have the abortion and stay with the American, or to have the baby and end the relationship with the male. The forty minutes of dialogue we observe detail the need both have the control the situation. The dialogue between these two individuals, and the comments by the narrator gives reference to the dry and despair atmosphere that flows throughout the setting of this event.
In The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume II. Edited by Paul Lauter et al. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991: 1208-1209. Hemingway, Ernest. A.
The writing expertise of Hemingway and Faulkner, commonly referred to as Hemingwayesque and Faulknerian, are both styles that seem to parallel off of one another. One of the best ways to understand Hemingway is to read Faulkner, and vice versa. The obscurantism of Faulkner and the attentiveness of Hemingway foster their syntax and diction, as well as their similarities and differences. Faulkner displays Gothic remnants in Absalom, Absalom!, while Hemingway creates a more minimalist prose. Hemingway and Faulkner, as seen in The Sun Also Rises and Absalom Absalom! both possess uniquely different writing styles, while being able to hold the ability to parallel off of eachother's themes and diction.
“Can someone be predisposed to be suicidal?” That is the question that plagues many Hemingway scholars, and indeed it seems that it exists in the Hemingway lineage. Ernest Hemingway’s family tree is dotted with suicides and sudden tragic deaths, too many occurrences for one to merely disregard such tragedies as coincidence. Some believe that there exists the so- called “curse of the Hemingways,” a way to explain the many deaths within the Hemingway family due to drug overdose or self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Ernest’s case is the most well known, but suicide also struck his father, sister, brother, son, and granddaughter.
Ernest Hemingway was a great American author whom started his career humbly in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the ripe, young age of seventeen. Once the United States joined World War One, Hemingway deemed it fit to join a volunteer ambulance service. During this time Hemingway was wounded, and decorated by the Italian Government for his noble deeds. Once he completely recovered, he made his way back to the United States. Upon his arrival he became a reporter for the American and Canadian newspapers and was sent abroad to cover significant events. For example, he was sent to Europe to cover the Greek revolution. During his early adulthood, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris. This is known as the time in his life in which he describes in two of his novels; A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises the latter of the two being his first work. Hemingway was able to use his experiences of serving in the front during the war and his experience of being with other expatriates after the war to shape both of these novels. He was able to successful write these novels due to his past experience with working for newspapers. His experience with the newspaper seemed to be far more beneficial than just supplying him with an income, with the reporting experience under his belt he also was able to construct another novel that allowed him to sufficiently describe his experiences reporting during the Civil War; For Whom the Bell Tolls. Arguably his most tremendous short novel was a about an old fisherman’s journey and the long, lonely struggle with a fish and the sea with his victory being in defeat.
he told them the size of the marlin. This has to be one of the
... from one friend to another. The quality, the control Hemingway had in weaving his theme through his story is the work of a true master. Philosophy is never an easy subject to tackle, with it’s complex theoretical basis, it’s seeming unending list of unanswered questions, and the frustration and sadness it can bring forward. Applauding Hemingway for his attempt at divulging into his own philosophy would be an understatement and, for the most part, would mean little to the author. He comes across as this mythical figure, who’s intellect was far superior to most, but who’s own faults brought him back down to humanity, revealing that he is far more similar to most humans, a thought that, almost certainly, would have terrified him to no end.
Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...
This cynical look at a less than ideal marriage keeps the reader at a distance. The opening sentence startles in its baldness "Mr. and Mrs. Elliot tried very hard to have a baby" and the second sentence destroys any illusions that the Elliots are enjoying this by stating that "They tried as often as Mrs. Elliot could stand it"(Hemingway 85).
In a symbolic reading, the opening paragraph describes the crisis that exists in the marriage of the couple. In other words, the description of the bad weather, of the "empty square"[1](l.10) and of their isolation, reflects this conflict and also sets the negative mood. In fact, since the beginning, Ernest Hemingway insists on the isolation of the couple that "does not know any of the people they passed" (ll.1-2) and are "only two Americans"(l.1). Here it is interesting to notice that they are isolated from the outside world but also from each other. There is no communication and they have no contact, they are distant from each other.
Before the advent of Ernest Hemingway's Theory of Omission, the typical writing philosophy of writers in the twentieth century in regards to fiction was to include as much information about your story as possible. This was not the case for Hemingway. His revolutionary writing prose, also known as Iceberg Theory, completely transformed the common paradigm of fiction writing. One of his most lauded works, The Old Man and the Sea, as well as many of his other works, use concision and the omission of fundamental concepts, rather than their inclusion, to strengthen the story's emotional affect on the reader.