Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

On the surface Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” centers around a long- winded conversation between an American man and a woman as they drink beer and wait for a train to arrive. Below the surface however the dialogue between the two describes the denial and fear of responsibility in a relationship and family. Hemingway’s simple writing describes a man who hides from responsibility and understanding by saying things are simple and a woman who knows things are not simple yet still states she is fine to save face and avoid conflict. The story demonstrates the flaws in oversimplifying real issues in an ironically simple way, with most of the text being in dialogue. The American man’s oversimplification of the issue is similar to

By denying the complexities of what may seem simple people lose more then they gain.

Hemingway’s writing style is best described as “deceivably unassuming.” Unlike authors in his time Ernest Hemingway preferred straightforwardness in his work over long flourishing portrayals. In the beginning of “Hills Like White Elephants” Hemingway only takes six short sentences to describe the setting of the story, whereas other authors would take at least three or four paragraph to fully invoke the mood of the story. The biggest trap a reader falls into while reading Hemingway’s works is to think that because the writing is simple the meaning behind it is also simple. Hemingway uses simple writing not for the ease of complexity but to give the

Stant

Hemingway writes only what’s absolutely needed to tell his story, leaving many of the details and symbolism up to the readers.

“The hills across the valley of Ebro were long and white,” is the first sentence in

Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.” (475) No more time is squandered illustrating those hills in the paragraph, even though one would think from the title that the first sentence would more appropriately be “The hills across the valley of Erbo were as long and white as elephants.” Instead it’s the girl who compares the hills to white elephants, giving the first sentence meaning. Since the point of view is between both the man and the girl it would stand to reason that they’d both be able to see the hills as they physically appear. Yet because the girl is the only one who knows what white elephants look like she’s the only one who could see