Settings Make a Difference
Ernest Hemingway's short story, Hills Like White Elephants, is primarily communicated in dialogue, with little sections dedicated to explaining the specifics of the setting. Hemingway sets “Hills Like White Elephants” at a train station to highlight the point that the association between the American man and the girl is at an intersection. The station is a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid, not the destination. Travelers at the station must decide where to go in their life. In the story, it symbolizes, to go with each other and continue their relationship or part and go different directions. Moreover, the difference between the white hills and barren valley perhaps highlights the difference between life
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Ernest Hemingway's story, "Hills Like White Elephants" is formed with vagueness as the narrative consists of small conversation between a woman named Jig and an unnamed man (Hemingway, 635). Therefore, to comprehend the insinuations of the conversation, the reader must understand the meaning from the symbols. The sections that define the environment are severely dialogue. The characters are used to explain the details of their environments. The lack of environmental explanation makes it easier to separate the purpose and meaning behind the setting. Hemingway only left the details, he felt were important. Almost every description and detail of the setting, even the ones that are innocent, are demonstrating the fight in the two main characters' minds about having an …show more content…
"They look like white elephants," the stories female lead describes them (Hemingway, 636). White elephants are unwelcome animals that bring shame to their owners and are to be hidden from the public, and the fact that the girl so willingly sees white elephants in the most random of surroundings suggests that she is pondering a great deal about the abortion (Mei-Hung, 212). Then, she says "They're lovely hills...They don't really look like white elephants" (Hemingway, 636). Possibly this may represent she is having second thoughts about the abortion. Otherwise, this variation of insight regarding the hills could be her attempt at denial. She may have feelings of guilt already, and seeing the universal symbol of unwanted things, she could be using logic to see that. The hills, could be the first symbolic scenery a reader notices, the train station is the first setting, as described in the first paragraph, “between two lines of rails"(Hemingway, 635). Later in the paragraph, it describes the station is a junction between Barcelona and Madrid. The insinuation gives the impression to be the trains here run in both directions, like many others. But this specific train station, one path leads to the place where the girl is to have her abortion, and the other does not. The station, located between the two railways, one leading to
Stated in the title and repeatedly mentioned throughout the story, the hills looking white elephants is an important symbol. This symbol is mentioned in the first line, “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.” The color, being an important indicator of its meaning, as stated by Abdoo is similar to that of a still born child (Abdoo 239). This observation after knowing what the conflict is gives us direction from the first line. Lewis E. Weeks uses the image of the hills to embody the image of a pregnant woman lying on their back (Lewis) This is
“Roman Fever” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are two stories that on surface seem very different from one another, but through careful analysis the two are quite similar. Their similarities are mainly evident through the significant use of the dialogues in the both stories. “Roman Fever” has a third person omniscient narrator which the author allows to know the inner private thoughts of both characters, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. In contrast, “Hills Like White Elephants” is composed in a third person limited narrative where very little is known about the thoughts of both Jig and the American. At first Ernest Hemingway’s short story can clearly be viewed as the most ambiguous out of the two. With its simplistic style, written mostly in straightforward dialogue which leaves the readers to contemplate over the ultimate outcome of the story and forces them to ...
Renner, Stanley. "Moving To The Girl's Side Of "Hills Like White Elephants.." Hemingway Review 15.1 (1995): 27-41. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
...ed with it” (83). Here, one can sense the coldness of that night. Hemingway uses literal imagery to describe the setting. The girl admires the view: “The girl was looking at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry” (593). Here, one can see the girl is enjoying her surroundings. Both authors use the same language device to describe the setting; however the events take place in different countries.
Ernest Hemingway was born and grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. By the time he wrote this story he had been wounded in Italy during World War I; had traveled extensively in Europe as a newspaper correspondent and writer; had married, fathered a son, been divorced, and remarried (Hemingway 236). Planted in the midst of a forsaken canyon, the station isn’t a final destination but merely a stage between Barcelona and Madrid. Hemingway sets “Hills like White Elephants” at a train depot to play up the reality that the relationship between the man and the Jig is at a crossroads. The author is showing the couple is at a pivotal point on whether to go with each other and endure their relationship or end things and start new lives. However, the contrast between the white hills and sterile basin perhaps highlights the division between fertility and sterility, between having the baby or having the abortion, between life or death. The girl seems broken between the two landscapes, not only commenting on the beauty of the hills but also walking to the end of the platform and looking out at the desolate dessert around the station. Throughout the story the author uses objective point of view, symbolism, and irony to illustrate the theme that life and death decisions may negatively affect relationships.
Burroway, Janet. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. 6th ed. New York: Longman, 2003. As Rpt. in Rankin, Paul "Hemingway's `Hills Like White Elephants'." Explicator, 63 (4) (Summer 2005): 234-37.
Hills Like White Elephants, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a story that takes place in Spain while a man and woman wait for a train. The story is set up as a dialogue between the two, in which the man is trying to convince the woman to do something she is hesitant in doing. Through out the story, Hemingway uses metaphors to express the characters’ opinions and feelings.
---, "Hills Like White Elephants." The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Charles Scribner?s Sons, 1953. 273-278.
The art, literature, and poetry of the early 20th century called for a disruption of social values. Modernism became the vague term to describe the shift. The characteristics of the term Modernism, all seek to free the restricted human spirit. It had no trust in the moral conventions and codes of the past. One of the examples of modernism, that breaks the conventions and traditions of literature prior to Modernism, is Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants”. The short story uses plot, symbolism, setting, dialogue, and a new style of writing to allow human spirit to experiment with meaning and interpretation.
Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” Fiction 101: An Anthology of Short Fiction. James H. Pickering. Twelfth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2010. 638-641
In the short story by Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants," a couple is delayed at a train station en route to Madrid and is observed in conflict over the girl's impending abortion. In his writing, Hemingway does not offer any commentary through a specific character's point of view, nor, in the storytelling, does he offer his explicit opinions on how to feel or think about the issues that emerge. The narrative seems to be purely objective, somewhat like a newspaper or journal article, and in true Hemingway form the story ends abruptly, without the couple's conflict clearly being resolved. The ambiguity of the ending has been a subject of much debate; however, the impact of what is not said in words can be gleaned through the symbolism of their surroundings. Upon examination of the setting, the couple's final choice becomes instantly apparent.
Stukas, Jake. "Literary analysis: Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway." Helium.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .
Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” Literature Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. DiYanni, Robert. 2nd ed. New York. Mc Grew Hill. 2008. 400-03. Print.
This short story is filled with symbolism, some of which the reader may never find. The title itself can be analyzed a lot deeper. The “hills” refers to the shape of the female body during pregnancy and the “white elephants” symbolize a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit (merriam-webster.com). The story is about a man and a woman taking a train to get an abortion. The train is supposed to show change and movement, something this couple appears to need because their life is very routine.
Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 113-117. Print.