Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

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Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story

Hills like White Elephants is a unique story filled with simple yet meaningful dialogue between two lovers in Spain. The entire story can leave the audience with more questions rather than answers when they reach the conclusion. Those who are familiar with Hemmingway and have studied his works have attempted to gain insight and logical conclusions to many of his stories by examining his life. A life that was full of married affairs, alcohol, and hardship. Many of these experiences Hemmingway has faced, have set the foundation for some of his greatest works. This paper will examine the impact that Hemmingway’s first born child, his alcohol addiction and his separation from Pauline had on the popular short story of Hills like White Elephants.

Before writing Hills like White Elephants Hemingway had been married to his first wife Hadley Richardson. In 1921, the couple moved to Paris were two years later Hemingway began to make a name for himself as a writer. Just as this was happening, Hadley became pregnant with their first son Bumby. This forced the couple to move back to the United States due to the medical advancements in the country. Doing so meant putting Hemingway’s new career on hold for three years. In 1924, the couple returned to Paris, where Ernest Hemingway met a woman named Pauline Pfeiffer. At first, Pauline thought very low of Hemmingway, but that quickly changed. She and Hemmingway developed a close friendly relationship, which grew to a closer relationship then Hemmingway had with his wife Hadley. Spending so much time together eventually lead the two into falling in love and having an affair. Hadley, Hemingway’s wife, found out about the affair and Hemingway in response asked for a ...

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...g both relationships could not coexist happily. In my opinion, Hemingway could have implemented these two landscapes to depict his relationship with the two women and the choice he had made. The side with Hadley was old and uninteresting, while Pauline was full of life. In addition, Hemingway wrote Pauline a letter comparing the 100 day separation to an abortion. He goes on to say, “I think when two people love each other and need each other then go away from each other it works almost as bad as an abortion”. With that being said, the separation from Pauline during the 100 day test might have been the spark that gave Hemmingway the idea to differentiate the landscape in Hills like White Elephants. I think it is safe to say that the separation did greatly affect the overall message of the story in a case where a couple is at a crossroads in their relationship.

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