Dilemma in Love: Analyzing 'Hills Like White Elephants'

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In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway the couple faces a crisis. The couple seems to be torn: the girl wants one thing but the man wants another thing. They have been traveling for quite awhile but they are eventually brought back to reality by the news of her being pregnant with his child. The two lovers are carrying on a conversation in Spain waiting for a train to arrive, enjoying some of their cold drinks they keep ordering, and the beautiful hills that come up in their conversation multiple times. Throughout the context in this story you find out that the couple is trying to decide on whether or not they should keep their unborn child. The American man wants the girl to get the operation, but the girl is …show more content…

The author mentions the white elephants in the title, in the couple’s conversation and the scenery. The first time the white elephants come up in their conversation is when the woman was looking off at the lines of the hills and they were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. She said, “They look like white elephants” (p. 295). She is referring to the white elephant as a gift that she wants but he does not want. Shi stated, the phrase “like white elephants,” occurring five times, is lent particular significance by its titular status (p. 3). Jig tries to explain how the white elephant could be a positive impact in her life and that it could be the possible change she needs in her life. The American sees the white elephant as a negative milestone in life because he feels that it will be a negative in his life instead of a positive. The man is trying anything he can do to convince the woman to have an abortion. On pages 296-297 the man tells the woman he loves her and everything will go back the way it used to be. The story also symbolizes the train station. It symbolizes time: time moves quickly through the story because what seems like a short conversation it took up most of their time before the train arrived.The train in the story suggests that the couple does not have much time to decide on what they are going to do about the unborn

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