Hills Like White Elephants, By Ernest Hemingway

Many writers try to fit as much description and “on the surface” detail as possible to make sure the reader understands the moral or point of the story. Unfortunately, if a story is written in a way in which there is no room for the reader to think deeply of the meaning behind the text, it is hard for a them to want to read a story more than once or twice. However, famous acclaimed writer Ernest Hemingway is known for doing the exact opposite of this and actually holding back a lot of information. This method of writing is what he calls, The Iceberg Theory. The iceberg Theory is the idea that the reader is able to see the minimal surface details of the story (above the water), but the symbolism,implication, and most of the information are absent from the page (below the water). Hemingway applies this minimalistic style of writing to this short story Hills Like White Elephants, a story

The most obvious way in which Hemingway uses setting to symbolize something deeper is the fact that these two characters are at a literal crossroads as they at a train station between two destinations, as well as a figurative crossroads of whether or they should have a baby. At this train station, the girl notices there are two sides of the valley: The one side in which “the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway 17-18) and the other side which is lush and full of vegetation and has a river called “The Ebro” (Hemingway 98). This comparison reflects the girl’s view on the baby as the one side represents the abortion and death, and the other side represents a baby and life. Accordingly, a more subtle detail that Hemingway wants the reader to catch is when he describes the hills are “white in the sun” (Hemingway, 17), as white is a universal symbol for purity. In this case, white represents the innocence and purity of the baby that the might or might to