Abortion In Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway
In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a relationship unfolding, a complex relationship difficult to understand. The relationship is revealed by a conversation between a man and a woman, a topic of conversation that people rarely discussed in the period that the story was set. After researching interpretations, it is consistently said “She is pregnant, and he wants her to have an abortion” (Weeks 76), to which I agree that this conversation is about abortion. With the man seemingly pushing the topic and the girl hesitant and questionable, it is unsure as to the result of their conversation. However, it is my belief that she chose to follow her heart and not get the abortion.
In fear of what the future may bring, some rely on their religious values to keep them afloat and provide them with comfort during their dark times. In David Foster Wallace’s short story “Good People,” Lane and Sheri, a young couple, face the initiation into adulthood as they struggle with their religious identity while grappling with an unexpected pregnancy. As devout Christians, Lane and Sheri initially turn to their faith for comfort and guidance. Still, they soon realize that their individual beliefs and values are at odds with each other and with their religious community/family. The struggle to balance personal desire with a religious affiliation is a common theme in initiation stories, as one must decide to abandon all that one has
The short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, is about a young couple and the polemic (controversial) issue of abortion. Though the word “abortion” is nowhere in the story, it is doubtlessly understood through Hemingway’s powerful use of two literary elements: setting and symbolism. From the first paragraph the setting immediately introduces the tense atmosphere that will surround the rest of the story. The story takes place in Spain in the late 1920’s. The setting is described as follows:
Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.
Ernest Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants", published in 1927, portrays a tense conversation between a man, called "the American", and a girl named "Jig", the only named character, against the scenic backdrop of a train station on Ebro River with its dusty, white hills looming in the distance. Though their conversation never specifies what their conflict is, we can infer that they are speaking about the termination of a pregnancy i.e., an abortion, via the use of words like "operation". Through this conversation and the American's treatment of Jig, we see the catalyst for Jig's transformation from a naive little girl who cannot even order her own drinks into a determined young woman able to make her own serious decisions for
In the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway from the start makes us draw out our own conclusions and does not give us a great deal of information. For example, we are only told about two characters, an American man and a girl who are waiting for their train to arrive. Other than this, we are not told what relationship the characters share together or where their final destination is. The protagonist who is referred to as “the girl” is in the middle of a tragic situation which can take a turn for the best or the worst and her partner, the “American man” is not helping but making the situation more heated.
Hills like White Elephants is a short story about an American man and a girl who are in a predicament about something in that is very hard to decide. Hills like White Elephants is a story that focuses on this couple whose relationship seem to be a success until she got pregnant. This story not only focuses on their relationship, but it specifically focuses on their situation and how both go about it. The story Hills like White Elephants is set up between a man and a girl, in which the man is trying to convince the girl to do something she is hesitant about doing, which is having an abortion. Throughout the story, the girl appears confused and indecisive; she doesn’t want to go through with the abortion; and the man appears to try to push her to have the operation .In
Ernest Hemingway was an influential American novelist and short story writer in the 20th-century. Best known for his works such as The Sun Also Rises and The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway used his past experiences in the war and his influential status to become a well renowned writer who emphasized what Gertrude Stein would later coin “The Lost Generation”. In his short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”, Hemingway uses a young couple to address the issue of abortion in the late 1920’s. Through his use of setting and symbolism, Hemmingway is able to indirectly speak of the conflicts surrounding the topic of abortion in the late 1920’s.
The dialogue in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” reveals a man’s and a woman’s incongruent conflict on abortion, and the author’s fundamentally feminist position is visible in the portrayal of the woman’s independent choice of whether or not to keep the baby she is carrying. The plot is very simple in the story which is less than 1500 words long. A woman and a man spend less than an hour on a hot summers day at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train heading for Madrid. Their dialogue takes up most of the space and only few major actions take place.
One main theme in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is the idea of disconnection. In this story, we eavesdrop on a conversation held between both characters. In their dialogue, conflict is created as the characters face what most readers believe to be the obstacle of unexpected pregnancy. This is assumed through symbolism and the titles meaning. The term “white elephant” was used for an unwanted gift.
The story begins with a detailed description of the setting, taking place at a train station in Spain’s Ebro valley during the 1920’s. In these opening details the setting of being barren, hot, and shade less is highlighted. Hemingway right away underlines the harsh and oppresive climate of the setting and the couple decision to escape into the only shelter available for temporary relief through shade and drink. Hemingway presents the theme of choice often in the story and this is the first, they decide to avoid the heat and go inside for relief, which relates to the same way they treat the issue at hand. They would rather avoid the problem with temporary relief.
“They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.” Comparing the hills to the unborn baby, is a perfect symbol for a topic that is painfully obvious that no one wants to discuss. Overall the story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway is a difficult story to understand at first glance. However, reading the story a few times becomes easier to understand the story’s true purpose, which Hemingway illustrates wonderfully with symbolism and
Symbolism plays a fundamental role in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. The different symbols used throughout the story are capable of subtly conveying intricate concepts to the readers of this recognized literary work. It then becomes essential for them to detect all these symbols, and discern the deep meanings which they hold in order to truly grasp the story’s message which the author intended to transmit. Without this insight, many first-time readers may view the story as a simple and casual dialog between two people, a man and a woman, waiting for a train from Barcelona to Madrid. Thus, they become unaware of the intense conflict the two main characters are actually facing, haunted by the difficult decision of terminating a pregnancy
During the course of the story “Hills Like White Elephants” the author Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism to describe the the main idea of the girl having the “operation.” Hemingway uses the landscape, the white elephant, and the term “elephant in the room” to represent different aspects of the pregnancy and abortion. The landscape in the story represents choosing the abortion or choosing to keep the baby. The setting of the story is at a train station.
In his story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway points out the couple's inability to make the decision: whether to abort the unborn child or not. The reader finds that the story deals with couple's miscommunication through the conversation and the emotions that they express. One can observe that no descriptions are given to the characters, thus, Hemingway creates universal dilemma to focus on the crucial issue. In this way, Hemingway leads the reader to identify with his female character that undergoes a struggle.
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