Preview

Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
576 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis
In the short story “Hills like White Elephants”, written by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway depicts a couple with conflicting mindsets towards a major life event, regarding their unplanned pregnancy. The setting takes place at a train station in the mountainous countryside along the Ebro river in Spain. The American and the girl have a discussion over some alcoholic beverages in regards to her abortion procedure while waiting for the next train to Madrid. The girls partner referred to as “the American” is stressing the ease of this procedure and how life can be simple again for them once the girl goes through with the procedure. Failing to communicate effectively in a situation regarding an unplanned pregnancy will only manifest feelings of uncertainty and a sense of lack of power for an individual in the relationship. …show more content…
The girl is faced with contemplating the different possible outcomes to an important life decision, she would rather much do what her partner wants to keep him happy and put her own feelings aside. “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me” (Hemingway 351). The girl clearly states that she does not care about herself and will go through with this procedure, if it means she still gets to be with her partner who believes “it’s really an awfully simple operation” (Hemingway 351). The girl is heavily influenced by her lover and willingly throws her own desires aside for him, even with a topic this sensitive and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” portrays the turmoil a couple endures when faced with an unplanned pregnancy, the choice to hold onto their current life or to begin a new life. Readers are allowed to intrude on a conversation between an American man and a girl, further conflict is presented through Hemingway’s use of symbolism. The man wants to go through with an abortion while the girl is unsure about which track she should take. Throughout the story, Hemmingway’s use of abundant details about the setting, rather than providing much detail about the characters, reveal a conflict between the man’s desire for the girl to have a “perfectly natural” (Hemingway 116) procedure and the decision to forgo an “awfully simple operation”…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Topic: discuss the role of setting as symbolic of the story in “Hills like White Elephant”…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Although most of the features of "Hills Like White Elephants" have been well discussed and understood, so that Paul Smith, in his 1989 survey of opinion on the story, can wonder if there is anything left to say about it (209), what has not been satisfactorily resolved is the question of the ending. In view of the fact that Hemingway leaves virtually everything, even what is at issue between the girl and the American, for the reader to "figure" out, meanwhile unobtrusively supplying what is needed to understand the story's structure and conflict, it seems logical to assume that he also expected the reader to be able to answer the question left by the story's ending: What are the couple going to do about the girl's pregnancy? Yet the ending…

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Becoming a parent is something most people see in their future, however it often comes at the wrong time for some people. In Ernest Hemingway’s, “Hills Like White Elephants”, we see a couple’s conversation as it leads up to the decision they are making on whether or not to have an abortion. With the white elephants representing a metaphor for the unborn child, we are able to see the struggle of a couple trying to make a decision on whether to keep the child or not, through which it is apparent that the two of them as a couple don’t communicate properly and the girl does not normally know how to make her own decisions.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The girl, called Jig by her lover, is torn between a moral responsibility to her unborn child and a romantic bond between herself and the American. On one hand, the American is her lover; she doesn’t want to lose their relationship. She seems willing to do anything to stay with him—almost anything. On the other hand, this unborn child has an unspoken connection that every child shares with its mother. Cutting away the baby would be cutting away that connection.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Does Ernest Hemingway’s use of direct presentation of the subjects; simple, direct language, and compression make it impossible for the audience to emotionally connect to the story? Most writer’s goal is to intrigue their readers with their work. They want their reader to connect, emotionally, they want their complete attention. For this to happen you must be interesting, paint pictures in their minds, get them involved in the reading, build a relationship, and tell a story! Although Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” has great use of direct language, direct presentation of subjects, amazing characterization…

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story "Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway is a fascinating story about one couple having faced with an unexpected pregnancy. The theme of the story is about the couple's decision between life and death. The main character Jig and The American are in disagreements on weather to keep their baby, or have an abortion. The couple's lack of communication creates the conflict in the story. For example, Jigs says, "We can have all this..." "And everyday we make it more impossible" While this problem is going on, the couple is sitting at a train station in the middle of a valley. Each side of the valley represents either life or death. As Jig moves about in the story, she faces different sides of the valley, which helps to determine the decision she will make. With the many descriptions and symbolism throughout the story, the final decision seems as if Jig is keeping the baby.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway In his summary of "Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway, Paul Rankin comes to a few conclusions about the a young girl in the story. Using both Carl Jung and Karen Horney’s application of human behavior to buttress his opinion, Rankin comes to the conclusion that Jig was the superior actor and the unnamed American is the inferior actor in the play. The evidence Rankin uses to prove Jung’s theory is that the nature of the mans feelings of inadequacy and inferiority in the face of Jigs imminent transformation from the girl into motherhood (Rankin 234). And his conclusions using Horney’s school of thought is mans fundamental lack of a life-creating power with which woman is imbued, has motivated the creation of such historically masculine enterprises as state, religion, art, and science, in mans attempt to compensate for that insurmountable deficiencies .a (Rankin 235) There is further evidence that Rankin’s take on the American in White Elephants is one of an inferior player by using the banter between Jig and the unnamed American male to show she was in control, We encounter further evidence of the mans inferiority complex in his severe response to Jigs playful banter about the similarity between hills and elephants. Having already admitted that he has never seen white elephants, the man angrily berates Jig, saying, Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything (Rankin 236). Paul Rankin’s over all view of "Hills Like White…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a reader reads a short story they need to pay attention because even the smallest of details are important. This proves to be true due to analysis of the surroundings of the characters and how they react to them. In Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," the main conflict is a man who is trying to convince his female companion to have an abortion but the girl is resistant to the whole idea. Between the description of the couple's surroundings, their dialogue, and how they react to the setting, Hemingway manages to clearly depict the complexity of the situation and the two different points of view of the couple who are the main focus in the story.…

    • 1830 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout his work “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism and condensed metaphors to sensationalize the power, yet subtleness of the main theme: happiness. While the title does not blatantly represent the characters pursuit of happiness, the simile used in the title does epitomize Hemingway’s writing style as well as the diverse use of symbolism throughout the narrative. Hemingway uses this symbolism to convey the unspoken thoughts and emotions of the characters and the ultimate decision made to begin her journey on the pursuit of happiness.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hills Like White Elephants

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Although he never mentions the word, Hemingway cleverly and painfully depicts the difficulty of a discussion about abortion. The dialogue starts with the couple engaging in a casual conversation over drinks. The girl makes a reference to the hills looking like white elephants and the man replies snappishly, revealing that he is uneasy and troubled by something that is not yet disclosed to the reader. Later he loosens up and states, "It's really an awfully simple operation...it's not really an operation at all" (249). This obscure statement brings the reader closer to the hidden conflict between the two characters. He goes on to say, "They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural" (249), which is the most direct mention of the actual procedure of abortion. The rest of the story is depicted by their awkward conversation with his nonstop pestering and unwelcome comforting. The girl finally cracks and asks him, "Would you please please please please please please please please stop talking?" (250). This reaction points out that she is tired of hearing the man's reasoning for the abortion and perhaps does not want to go through with it. At the end of the story, she appears pleasant and says, "I feel fine...there's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine" (251), yet she is not. Although she possesses a maternal instinct and an emotional attachment to her unborn child, she surrenders her choice to her boyfriend. Within the dialogue, Hemingway embeds the characters' true feelings and allows their common, everyday speech to be the decoder of the story's…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the "Hills like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway the setting emphasize on a decision facing a couple that disagree about whether the woman should have an abortion. The story's about a girl named Jig and her older American lover, sitting at a train station sipping drinks and discussing whether they should proceed to abort their unborn baby. Jig opposes the plan, although she refuses to say so openly. Her lover, on the other hand, sees it as a solution to their problems, and tries to convince Jig that it is the right thing to do…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The topic of "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway continues to be a hot button issue, even 90 years after the story's publication. Though not as scandalous as it must have been in 1927, it remains the subject of great debate. In this short story, two lovers are awaiting a train that will whisk them away to Madrid for the purpose of an abortion. Even though the decision was made before arriving at the station, they continue to debate whether she will go through with it. The man's persuasive dialogue makes it apparent that he wants Jig to have the abortion and is worried that she will change her mind, however she is more concerned with the fate of her relationship with the man and the effects an abortion may have on her.…

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the early 1920’s, editors ignored Hemmingway’s story “Hills Like White Elephants” because, they felt it was not what the public wanted. Not until the 1990’s did it become one of Ernest Hemmingway’s most anthologized short stories. “Hills Like White Elephants” has a single storyline and it takes place in a single day. The male character “Man” appears to mirror Hemmingway’s own life with his not so wise way of handling difficult situations with the opposite sex, while the female character who is referred to as “Girl” appears to be seen as weak and unsure. This Hemmingway story creatively and subtlety gives many implications and his two characters unfold these implications through…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ernest Hemingway’s "Hills Like White Elephants," tells the story of an American man and a girl who is named Jig. They are both sitting outside of a train station in Spain looking across a valley while drinking beer. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway discusses the landscape before them, the valley of the Ebro River, that has long white hills. As the American and the girl begin to have a conversation, the girl remarks on the Ebro River of the way it looks. After a while the American asked her if she wanted to do the operation (an abortion which was learned in the author's comment at the end) and explained to her that she would be fine. However, she began to think if she participates in the operation would the American lover still be with her. Nevertheless, the American knows that if the operation is not done he would not be able to do certain things; therefore, he is trying to eliminate the reasons to settle down with Jig. Towards the end of the story, Jig and the American would argue about the operation; even though the American does not want a child.…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays