Hills Like White Elephants Rhetorical Analysis

The Inevitable

All human beings go through rough times in their life, whether it is a simple choice or a life-changing decision, it is inevitable. There will also always be people who support and uplift you, while others debase and degrade you for their own selfish motives. The later parts of these impactful types of scenarios mixed together and shoved into the middle of a relationship do not benefit anyone, though it can cause major issues and tear them apart. This idea that Ernest Hemingway expresses, focusing on a significant point-of-view and rhetorical application, expresses the theme throughout his story. Although, the short story has complex and easy to misinterpret dialogue, the characters and setting assist to complete the moral

of the story. Ernest Hemingway’s’ classic story, Hills Like White Elephants exemplifies the uncanny relationship of a couple, using an objective third person narrator to express the verbal duel between a girl and man, while additionally applying a highly symbolic appeal to the story.
The third person objective point of view portrays the characters’ relationship as dysfunctional and detached throughout the story, causing a rift in their communication. The two main characters mentioned as “Jig” and “the American” are expressed through the objective third person narrator, showing us glimpses of their perplexing conversations. In the beginning of the story, the girl Jig comments to the man about the hills surrounding them saying, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 273). She seems to be casually making an inference about the hills, but it serves as a hint for the American and her to talk about their issue-which is implied as an unborn baby- to possibly get an abortion. He casually blows her off and does not take the hint that her initiative was to discuss their situation, and he instead says that he has never seen “white hills”. Deeper into Hills Like White Elephants, the narrator expresses that the girl looked again at the hills and she brought up the inference she made before saying, "They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees” (Hemingway 274). This quote says a lot about the girl and how she completely changed her thoughts from the hills looking like white elephants to not. Both the girls’ change of thoughts, and the Americans’ reaction demonstrates the strange and unhealthy relationship that they have together. They both talk and converse, but they do not seem to actually communicate or hear what the other is saying, which only highlights the instability between the two.
The verbal duel and continuous drinking between the couple serves the purpose of avoiding conflict and resolution to the characters’ decision on whether or not to have an abortion.

These two people have an interesting way of beating around the bush when it comes to the decision to keep the baby or not. The girl is very unsure as to what the right decision is and what the consequences of keeping or getting rid of the unborn baby are, but the man is so focused and determined to deter her from keeping the baby that he makes the potential of abortion seem as if it is nothing. In Paul Rankin’s article, Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, he

states,
As the man persists in opposing the continuance of Jig’s maternity, he grossly oversimplifies the issue, even to the point of self-contradiction, calling the abortion first, “an awfully simple operation”, and then “not really an operation at all” . . . indicate[s] the man’s awareness that this will not be an easy sale and believe his understanding, whether he would be willing to acknowledge this or not, of Jig’s formidable intelligence and will. (Rankin)
The significance of Paul Rankin’s’ referral to Hills Like White Elephants is the American’s’ motive and goal to get her to have the operation, and him already knowing it is not an easy thing, he ignores that and still tries to extremely simplify the situation. Aside from the mans’ motive and replies, the couple gets easily frustrated with each other and try to change tacks on their conversation. Towards the end of the story, they are talking about how it is “perfectly simple” and Jig asks the man if he will do something for her, when he replies that he would, she says, “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?” (Hemingway 277). I think that this dramatic reply and reaction are interesting, it also gives us insight as to how the girl is obviously frustrated at the man for hounding her about the abortion and flipping his intentions around to make her feel guilty. Jig really does not want to talk about the subject at hand anymore, and is trying to avoid it and get him to stop talking.
The highly symbolic appeal applies to the setting of the story’s’ situational circumstances, as well as communication.

Throughout and behind the story, there are a lot of symbolic meanings, which are perceived in the conversations, and the details of the setting where the scenario takes place. In Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway quotes, “Everything tastes of licorice, and especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway 274). This quote is explained in Lewis E. Weeks Jr.’s article, Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in “Hills Like White Elephants” he mentions, “The implication as to the casualness and triviality of their lives, in which drinks are of such importance, and the further ironic implication in the bitterness of absinthe” and “color symbolism involving the blackness of licorice and the whiteness of the hills contrast the sorrow and joy” (Weeks). The symbolism from the girls’ quotes, and explained in Lewis Weeks’ article, demonstrates the ideas hidden behind what Jig had said about licorice and absinthe. He uses the examples of the bitterness of the absinthe in the rhetorical sense and life situation, and then comments about the color of licorice as the details of the story’s’ setting. The most significant symbolic reference is the hills, as well as the title pertaining to the hills. They are meant to symbolize the unborn baby and the decision for the situation with the baby. Weeks explains the significance and meaning behind

the reference saying,
Immediately the symbolic significance of the title and the reason for the frequent mentions of the hills becomes apparent . . . the girl wants the baby, not the abortion, which he says will make no difference in their relationship and which hypocritically he persists in assuring her he does not want if she objects to it. (Weeks)
The story’s conflict is revolving around an unwanted pregnancy; the girl skeptical and decisive, but wanting the baby, and the man set on erasing this baby from their lives, and giving her almost a hidden ultimatum. This use of the symbolic appeal throughout Hemingway’s’ Hills Like White Elephants helps to enhance the story’s complexity and sorrow, as well as the frustration of what could have been.
Hills Like White Elephants thoroughly expresses the dysfunctional relationship between two people by using a narrator with an objective third person to express the detached communication of an American man and a girl, while coordinating the use of multiple symbolic meanings throughout the story. Even though the audience has to look deeper and see beyond the confusing dialogue and rhetorical remarks to comprehend the story’s’ overall theme, once they have there is brilliant story beneath the surface. There are situations that can be difficult to deal with, and not knowing which decisions to make, just as there are people who try to make those decisions for you. In life, we try to do what we think is best for our lives and ourselves; wondering if the decision will be worth the result or not. But when you have someone in your life that does not make that decision any easier and has a selfish motive to manipulate the outcome, it doesn’t help matters, and will possibly cause the relationship to hit a dead end.