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Compare And Contrast Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway

1068 Words5 Pages

Two women, two different stories, and no clear outcome for either. Written by Ernest Hemingway, “Hills like White Elephants” is a short story about a girl named Jig who is controlled by a man only known as “The American” who pressures her to have an “operation” at a train station in Spain. The information of what kind of operation is never clearly given to the reader but was later revealed by the author (Ernest Hemingway) that it was in fact, an abortion. Whether she actually goes through with it is never said. On the other hand, in the short story, “Eveline,” Eveline is abused and controlled by her father through her own memories of him. In this short storybook written by James Joyce, she remembers moments when he was a good man which contradicts …show more content…

The result afterward of whether or not she does it is never said in the story, but it is obvious that she will. When arguing with the American about whether getting an abortion is the right thing to do, the girl gets up from her seat and out of the shade of the train junction, and the man exclaims, “‘Come on back in the shade,’ he said. ‘You mustn’t feel that way’” (Hemingway 3). This excerpt from the text shows how the man tries to control her but also how she tries to get out of his “shade” and dominance even if it's as small as this. This truly shows how deep his influence is and how she struggles to keep up with his tactics of control. Then, later in the text on the same page she, “Sat down at the table and looked across the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table” (Hemingway 3). This segment of the text further pushes the evidence shown earlier that even though she has her small bits of freedom, it is still trumped by the man's ability to control her or to get her to “Come on back in the shade” (Hemingway 3). This quote summarizes the inevitability that the girl will follow his instructions and do what he says even for things as small as having to sit with him. Based on the textual evidence, there is no way that the girl will not get the abortion because of her reluctance to live by her own merit and do what she wants in her own life. The man will assume total control of her and make her do the procedure as he has controlled her many times

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Examples Of Ambiguity In Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway

333 Words | 2 Pages

Ernest Hemingway uses repetition and ambiguity in his story, “Hills like White Elephants'' to exhibit the idea that in order to maintain a healthy long-term relationship, communication and consideration of one another’s values are needed. Throughout this story, a couple, Jig and the American, are having an intense and emotional conversation about whether Jig should have an abortion. She displays very sensitive feelings about the procedure, and the American takes advantage of this by trying to manipulate her, repeatedly stating it is her choice: “if [she doesn’t] want to [she doesn’t] have to. [He] wouldn’t have [her] do it if [she] didn’t want to” (477). By doing this he falsely implies he has no opinion, but later contradicts himself by

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Hills Like A White Elephant Literary Analysis Essay

528 Words | 3 Pages

She even has difficulty making decisions about how she wants her drink served and only ordered her drink after getting the Americans opinion. This is the same with deciding whether or not to get the operation. She has her own views and opinions about the operation, but is obedient with the American, and will do what he wants rather than doing what she thinks is right. The girl seems to make symbolic jabs at the American throughout the story. She starts by making comments about the mountains that appear to her like a white elephant.

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Hills Like White Elephants Rhetorical Analysis

739 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout their conversation, you can decipher a tone where the conversation sheds light on his feelings towards the procedure and her feelings. He says “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all” (Hemingway 124), in an effort to persuade her to in fact have the abortion. She, on the other hand, seems silent at first, but then questions how their life will be better after this procedure. Her uncertainty shows in her responses, and in other findings “… the sensuous beauty of a love relation that is quickly deteriorating, now that she has become conscious of her lover’s selfishness” (Maynard 273).

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Their Eyes Were Watching God And Hurston's Treatment Of Women

620 Words | 3 Pages

The man she is with keeps pushing her to make a life-changing decision about an abortion and she says, “I realize… Can’t we maybe stop talking?,” (Hemingway 3). Including this issue specifically is bold for Hemingway as it is controversial, yet he crafts it to bring even more attention to the Girl’s rights and intentionally characterizes her with this strong will and independence. She later threatens to scream, demonstrating that the Girl is unafraid to bring attention to this altercation. Hemingway provides the Girl with a voice that many women did not have. The man craves authority and manipulates her by saying, “I think [getting the abortion is] the best thing to do.

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Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

1554 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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Lack Of Communication In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

1337 Words | 6 Pages

In the story, a girl named Jig and an unnamed American man are travelling in Spain. While waiting for a train, they have a few drinks, and the subject of “an operation” (476) comes up. This “operation” (476) is presumably an abortion, and the two characters have drastically different opinions on the matter. Jig wants to go through with the pregnancy, while her partner wants her to go through with the abortion. Eventually, Jig stops arguing, putting on a smile and telling the American man that she feels “fine” (478).

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Character Analysis Of Jig In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

1481 Words | 6 Pages

Even though it is not said directly, it is still easy for the audience to understand that what Jig and her boyfriend are talking about is a woman’s matter. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway does not reveal the underlying meaning, but rather uses symbolism in his story through Jig’s attitude towards her boyfriend, the station in which the couple is at, and the absinthe drink she tries. Jig has an attitude about her that makes seem childish. She repeats her words as if she were a young child would when they want something they cannot have.

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The Theme Of Abortion In Hills Like White Elephants

893 Words | 4 Pages

The conflict between the two characters is the issue of abortion and whether or not the girl will go through it. Hemingway does not tell us that the girl is pregnant but hints it throughout the story referring to “the operation” as having an abortion. From the start, you can take

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The Dialogue In Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

1629 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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Popular Mechanics Raymond Carver

1291 Words | 6 Pages

The man acts like he would be fine with having the baby but it is obvious he doesn’t want it at all saying “I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple” (Hemingway 925). She likes the idea of having a baby throughout the story and the man realizes she wants to have it. At the end of the story he walks through the bar and has a drink by himself and “look[s] at the people” to get used to being in a bar by himself again (Hemingway 926). He is planning to break up with her because she wants to have the baby and he wants to live his life the way he has been.

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Irony And Contradiction In Hills Like White Elephants

1269 Words | 6 Pages

In Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” the reader is forced to dive into the story to find their own interpretation of the story. Hemingway seems to tell multiple stories by giving most of the dialogue and details he adds extra meaning. The story begins with a man and woman talking in a train station about an operation the woman is going to be getting, and with context clues, we come to understand this operation to be an abortion. One possible interpretation of a theme in this story could be the burial of feelings in order to make people happy. The reasons for this are because the girl tries to lighten the mood at first by starting a conversation, then tries to please the man by claiming she is doing the operation for him,

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Hills Like White Elephants Literary Criticism

1098 Words | 5 Pages

Hills Like White Elephant is a short story by Earnest Hemingway from 1927. The story is talking about a failing relationship between an American man and his girlfriend. This couple is at a critical point on their lives. At the bar in a train station in Spain, the girl, Jig, does not want to end up her pregnancy, but she is going to sacrifice the baby to satisfied him. Because he is critical of the exploitation of his girl’s feelings concerning the continuation of unbalanced relationship.

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Literary Analysis Of Hills Like White Elephants, By Ernest Hemingway

2016 Words | 9 Pages

If taken literally, Hemingway’s story is one in which very little happens. The story takes place in a train station in Spain where a couple argue about a vague event over drinks. From the very start of the short story, there is an overbearing uneasiness felt in the text as the unnamed male and the girl, Jig, hold what seems to be—on the surface—an innocent conversation. By using a limiting third person point of view that consists mostly of dialogue, Hemingway creates an obstacle in the way of understanding as there is no clear insight to what is going on inside of either party’s head. The conflict that the pair seem to be discussing is never named and it becomes the metaphorical elephant in the room much like the white elephants that Jig sees in the mountains.

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Short Story Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway

245 Words | 1 Pages

It’s really not anything. It is just to let the air in” (Hemingway 124). One can see then that the American is trying to convince the girl the action she is about to do is nothing that would contradict her values. However, one can

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Hills Like White Elephants Character Analysis

1044 Words | 5 Pages

According to Smiley, “The dialogue contains the essence of the story's power; for to read Jig's and the American conversation is to recognize the powerless frustration of parallel interchanges” (2). The girl's character passes changes throughout the story. It appears that “Hemingway works out the story's conflict, which revolves around the development of his female character” (Renner 28). The girl gains power and frees herself from the following the American man. In the beginning of the story, the girl take the initiative to speak which leads to the discussion: “'what should we drink?'

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