Hills Like White Elephants, By Ernest Hemingway

“Hills Like White Elephants” Analysis
Ernest Hemingway’s, “Iceberg Theory”, states, “If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” He is trying to instill in his readers that less, is indeed, more. His short story, “Hills Like White Elephants.” portrays a relationship between a girl and a man who seem to be indifferent about an issue. He does not explicitly mention what …show more content…
Although the theme is not explicitly mentioned, some are inferred throughout the story. A main theme is choices. The conflict between the American man and his girlfriend is about a procedure that she is indecisive about having. The author omits what type of procedure and does not outright say that that the man wants her to have it, but it is inferred that the procedure is abortion and that he is all for it. "I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural." is what the American man convincingly told his girlfriend with his simplistic understanding of abortion. “Just let the air in” refers to a type of procedure for abortions. It doesn’t say whether or not Jig wants to go through with the procedure but it does express her …show more content…
White elephants is a term used to describe something that nobody wants and in this case, it’s the unborn child. At the beginning, when Jig mentions the white elephants, she tells him that he wouldn’t have ever seen them, implying that he’d never had a child before or brought one into the world, so he tells her, “I might have. Just because you say I wouldn’t doesn’t prove anything.” Although Jig says that the hills look like white elephants, she later takes back her statement and says that they don’t really look like white elephants after all, insinuating that she actually wants to keep the baby, but the American does not catch on. “They’re lovely hills. They don’t look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.” Jig says, comparing the hills to the baby. The baby ultimately then becomes the “elephant in the room” because it is obvious that no one wants to discuss it, but both are aware that they need to resolve the