In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, symbolism is incorporated throughout the story. Ernest Hemingway was a nobel prize winner, journalist, and short story writer. Ernest Hemingway 's impressive style, till this day continues to influence other writers. The story begins with a couple at a train station, the American and the girl. The American seems to be knowledgeable and in control of the relationship and himself. The girl is to portrayed as being less assertive, persuasive, dependent and most of all confused. There is tension amongst the couple in regards to an operation that is suggested for the girl. The topic of the operation seems to create a problem between the couple, therefor they dance around the issue …show more content…
She describes them by saying ”They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry “They look like white elephants,” she said” (Hemingway 223). The Expression “elephant in the room” can indicate a subject that someone is trying to avoid or something that no one wants to address. In this situation, the girl is trying to avoid the topic of her unborn child and whether or not she should have an abortion. She however realizes that the topic must be discussed in length due to that any decision can be life altering. Yet, later on she retracts her statement by saying, “They don 't really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees” (Hemingway 224). This quote shows how uncertain the girl is about the abortion, she even calls the hills lovely at one point. She even hints that perhaps she wants to keep the baby. Her perspective on the whole subject is impacted by the American. As the discussion seems to go on, she begins to avoid the unavoidable subject altogether. She is metaphorically comparing the hills and the …show more content…
It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid” (Hemingway 222). The setting of the short story highlights the point that they are at a train station, where the railroad tracks run parallel but they never cross paths. Also, that the relationship is at a crossroad. This symbolizes the couple 's relationship is on rocky path, for instance, they never say anything meaningful to each other. Both the girl and the American talk but neither of them listens or truly understands one or another 's point of view. Drinking alcohol is an escape from their reality. As the girl is getting intoxicated her perspective on the situation is being manipulated, not only by the alcohol but also by the American. As a reader you are able to sense that there are deeper problems in the relationship of which the unborn child is only one. The reference to the hot weather signifies the tension the couple is going through and how uncomfortable this situation is for them in that they do not know where their lives are heading due to their lack of communication. The heat seems to stretch beyond their
“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple, the American and Jig, who contemplate whether or not to have an abortion. The premise of the story seems simple enough, but the outcome is highly debated. Critics argue that the baby was kept by the couple ( Renner ) and others claim the baby was aborted.( Fletcher ) Others have even simplified the story, claiming that the issue was not resolved because the couple was drunk by the end of the story. ( Sipiora ) Although the conclusion is in questions many have agreed with the idea that the couples relationship would be changed and would end prematurely. ( Wyche ) Dialogue is the main technique in conveying this argument but we can only understand the complexity of Hemingway’s work by looking at the story as a whole. By looking at the many symbols, intrinsically and
Ernest Hemingway has a superbly unique style of writing in Hills Like White Elephants. His short, to the point syntax and sentence style plays a great role in helping readers understand the theme of this short story. The critique M.A.K. Halliday observed, “The story is frequently generated by the repetition of words, clauses, and groups of related words or ethical sets” (Link, Alex). The first set of dialogue that can be pulled from this story is story is short and to the point. The American states, “We can have the whole world.” Jig replies with “No, we can’t” (Hemingway, Ernest). The sentence length is very short, yet there is a hidden meaning behind the small talk. Jig is referring to not having the baby. She can have everything, but her will to decide things. She can’t have a baby due to unloving pressure from the American. It is in sync with the tone of the story perfectly. The tone is forward, direct, and shallow. That is exactly what happens in this dialogue. There is no emotion, just pure sarcasm on a huge topic. Abortion to this couple is nothing more then a qui...
Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is a short story that deals with the idea of conformity and the conflict caused by internal desire and pressure from another party. The short story is very subtle, and often uses these subtleties in combination with incredible amounts of symbolism interlaced throughout the narrative to cause the reader to look and think deeper into the motives, values and convictions of the conflict between the two protagonists respective desires. When two parties are at an impasse of desire, the conviction of their opposing beliefs become increasingly unshakeable. This results in dissension due to the severe lack of understanding between the parties involved and furthermore, they refuse to be held responsible
“The Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story that is about an American man and a girl called Jig. They are sitting at a table outside a train station, waiting for a train to Madrid. While they wait they order drinks and have a heated ongoing conversation over whether or not Jig will have an operation that would be of great significance to their relationship. “The Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway has two important symbols in the story, the hills and the drinks both of which help to give us a better understanding of what is going on between the American and his girl.
Hemingway provides the reader with insight into this story, before it is even read, through the title. The girl in the story mentions the hills that can be seen from the train station and describes them as looking like white elephants. Jig is at a crossroads in her life, accompanied by her partner. She is pregnant and cannot decide whether to choose life for the baby, or to get an abortion. Throughout the story, she experiences persistent uncertainty over what she wants to do with her life. Whatever decision she makes will have a drastic impact in her later years as a woman. While seated at the bar inside the train station, the girl says, “The hills look like white elephants” (Hemingway). The hills that are spotted in the distance directly parallel the decision that Jig must make. Critic Kenneth Johnston was recorded stating, “A white elephant is a rare pale-gray variety of an Asian elephant held sacred by the Burmese and Siamese. The girl’s reverence for life is captured by this meaning of the phrase.” Johnston also says, “A white ...
‘Hills Like White Elephants’ is a short story authored by Ernest Hemingway about an American and a girl named Jig. In the story, the two are sitting in a train station waiting for the train to Madrid. While they wait, they have an intense ongoing debate on whether or not to abort Jig. At the end of the story, the train is about to arrive and the man carries luggage on the tracks as they prepare to leave. The end of the story does not clearly define the outcome of its decision. She said I feel good at the end of the story - happiness is a central theme of the story, but we wonder if she went through with the operation. The paper discusses the manner in which symbolism has been employed in the story to communicate about an abortion, the couple is considering to go through.
Renner, Stanley "Moving to the Girl's Side of `Hills Like White Elephants'." The Hemingway Review, 15 (1) (Fall 1995): 27-41. As Rpt. in Wyche, David "Letting the Air into a Relationship: Metaphorical Abortion in `Hills Like White Elephants'. The Hemingway Review, 22 (1) (Fall 2002): 56-71. EBSCOhost.
What would literature be had every author used the same perspective for every single story? Literature would not be as well received as it currently is received. Take three American short stories, “Hills Like White Elephants,” “A Rose for Emily,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” for example. These stories, by Hemingway, Faulkner, and Gilman respectively, each utilize a different a point of view. The perspective of a story heavily influences the impact of the story on a reader and that impact varies based on the content of the story.
Hills Like White Elephants, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a story that takes place in Spain while a man and woman wait for a train. The story is set up as a dialogue between the two, in which the man is trying to convince the woman to do something she is hesitant in doing. Through out the story, Hemingway uses metaphors to express the characters’ opinions and feelings.
Analysis of Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway In “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway relies on symbolism to convey the theme of abortion. The symbolic material objects, as well as the strong symbolic characters, aid the reader’s understanding of the underlying theme. The material objects that Hemingway uses to convey the theme are beer, the good and bad hillsides, and a railroad station between two tracks. The beer represents the couple’s, “the American” and “the girl’s”, routine activities they do together.
In the story, the American and the girl are waiting at a train station and drink large glasses of beer at the beginning. The beer is put on felt pads. Felt represents the comforting barrier the alcohol provides them between the truth, the table. This may be because they are trying to forget something that they do not want to think about. The barren setting is because of the deadly and drastic situation the couple are in. The girl looks at the hills, saying they look like white elephants. This is referring to something that is big and important but is not being seen because it is white. The man says he has never seen one, showing that he denies that it exists. White also represents innocence, so the baby is innocent. The man does not see this baby as white, and innocent person, but only as an elephant, something that would require time and energy to maintain. The girl says that the man would not have seen this white elephant. This is implying that the girl thinks that the man does not really care about the baby or any type of innocence. The man did not see the innocence when he impregnated her, and does not now when he wants to kill the baby. The man says he might h...
Ernest Hemmingway uses time, place, and symbolism in "Hills like White Elephants" to intensify the central dilemma in a story about a man and a woman deciding on whether to go through with an abortion. Although a literal reading of the title may not seem to have any relation to the story, the title is rich in implications. Critics suggest that "Hills" refers to the shape of a woman's stomach when pregnant, and Webster's 21st Century Dictionary defines white elephant as: "[An] awkward, useless possession." The term is also defined in Webster's as an item that is worthless to some but priceless to others. According to Victor Lindsey, the child in the story is a white elephant in the view of the man, who is trying to convince the girl to get rid of it. Hemingway hints about how the man and the woman each feel about the unborn child, but he never tells us why they have such different views on the prospect of an abortion. The man in the story, referred to as "the American," claims that the abortion is necessary because it would save their relationship, whereas the woman, Jig, has doubts as to whether or not she should have an abortion at all.
As the couple waits between two destinations, Barcelona and Madrid, they are trapped in limbo "between two lines of rail in the sun"(142). The station, placed between the two lines of rails, suggest the two directions the couple may go - toward Madrid and the abortion or away from Madrid and to a family scenario. The landscape describes the conflict, both barren and fruitful. Alongside of one rail line long, white hills stretch across the horizon, the country before them "brown and dry" (143). In stark contrast to the desolate landscape of the hills, the other flank is lush and green, with "fields of grain and trees [running] along the banks of the Ebro" (145). This scenic dichotomy comes to embody the girl's sentiments regarding the abortion: the hills are barren, representing her life if she submits to her partners expressed desires and goes through with the abortion; while th...
The use of the railroad symbolizes the divide in the relationship. The young couple is in different directions, however, neither one listens to each other. The girl is pressured by the man to choose one side of the tracks, but at the train station, she is in a position where her choice is visible. His actions are haughty and she is submissive to him. Objects like the alcohol and the bamboo are carefully chosen by the author.
The reader is told that there is a curtain made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The bamboo beads not only keep them from their problems (known as flies) but it also keeps their lives separate from all of the other people at the bar. Hemingway then tells the reader that the train will stop at this junction for two minutes and then go to Madrid. The train only stopping for two minutes is to show the importance of the girl’s decision to have the abortion. It is a big decision and there is not that much time for her to sit around and think about it.