Hills Like White Elephants Rhetorical Analysis

Communication can be defined as the process of understanding and sharing meaning. You share meaning in what you say and how you say it. This short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple waiting outside a train station. While waiting they are discussing a secretive issue regarding their relationship. This story reveals that the relationship between Jig and the American is an unhappy one because he belittles Jig showing that he has power over her. She has to rely on him and they have different points of view but because they are not straightforward with what they each want, they do not understand each other. They are not straightforward with what they want and with each other. It’s important because communication

is the key to a happy relationship. The central theme of the story is the lack of communication which causes conflict for the relationship between the American guy and Jig. In this short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” the author uses the symbol of the white elephant to represents the struggle of deciding whether to keep the baby; the characterization of Jig as an indecisive child, and a third person point of view are used to show the lack of communication in their relationship which proves they do not have an understanding of what they want making them strangers to each other.
The American and Jig show that they are not ready to care for their unborn child because they are not having a mutually understanding conversation in the first place, which is shown through their lack of communication depicted by the use of the white elephant.

Jig symbolizes the white elephants as her unborn child and how she shows she wants and cares for the baby. The couple is sitting outside of the train station bar on a table drinking beer when Jig implies, “They were white elephants in the sun and the country was brown and dry. They look like white elephants she said” (211). The use of elephant in a conversation is used for things that are obvious but no one wants to deal with. Adding white to the description of the elephant indicates purity referring to the unborn child. The use of white elephant together is rare. Using it in the description of the scenery of the sun to direct light towards the child represents life which refers to the decision they have yet to talk about. Brown and dry add to the decision by meaning no life for child. Consequently, the fact that the unborn child is only brought up in the conversation about the hills shows that they do not have an understanding and refuse to talk about it. Everything she sees or does now reminds her of her unborn child. Jig shows that she really wants her child and is constantly bring it up to the American guy. The American guy and Jig have different points of view and how they see the white elephant jig sees it as her

unborn child while the American guy does not.
Jig seems important in the relationship even though she is the one carrying the unborn child which is shown through her depiction of a child instead of a woman.

Jigs characterization projects the idea that women depend on men and will believe anything they say. The narrator describes Jig by calling her a “girl” instead of a “woman.” Making her seem that she is less important in what she think and feels about herself. The woman said “the train comes in five minutes” and Jig tells the American “what did she say?”(214). Jig depends on the American so much because she needs him to explain to her what the woman said. She needs him to get around to places and ask him for things she needs. This causes her to realize that she needs to obey him and do what he tells her to do. Which tells her that her opinion has no importance to their relationship. The American man is able to belittle her because of the control he has over her. Jig is unable to communicate how she feels and losses part of herself because of lack of confidence of an adult to discuss pressing matters with the

American.
They are not on the same page about their relationship or the decision they have to make which is shown in Hemingway’s technique or strategy of allowing the reader to eavesdrop into their conversation. Hemingway allows the reader to see that the couple is dysfunctional because they cannot work together to decide on what to do. Their relationship through the argument that they are having outside the train station bar. The narrator views the American and the girl are having a situation by their tone of their voice. In this conversation, the American guy is trying to convince Jig of the abortion procedures, “‘It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,’ the man said. ‘It’s not really an operation at all’” (212). From the 3rd person point of view it is obvious that they are talking about abortion. The American guy tries to make it seem less of a big deal that this operation is just an in and out procedure. Jig’s reacts with silence to how he describes this procedure. The major problem about this conversation is that they do not tell each other what it is that they truly want. Which then cause the lack of commutation between them.
Hemingway, uses a form of symbolism, characterization, and a third person point of view to show the lack of communication between their relationships. The elephant is an object as a form of symbolism where jig can see the elephant and the American cannot see shows that they do not have the same vision regarding the child. Jig’s characterization views the unborn child in an indecisive matter whether to have it or not. They both do not have the courage to tell each other what exactly they want. By an outsider describing the American and Jig shows that they are childish and that they lack the communication in their relationship. Communication is important in relationships as it allows us to share interest, goals, concerns, to support each other, to coordinate our lives and make decisions, and to work together in caring for a child.