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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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528 Words | 3 Pages

Literary Analysis #2 Hills Like White Elephants This short story by Ernest Hemmingway, is about a man and woman’s difference in opinion with one another. The couple is waiting on a train to arrive at the junction station to take them to Madrid, Spain so that the woman can have an operation. In this story, Hemmingway utilizes symbolism and clues to explain the plot of the story and the conflict the two characters are having.

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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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739 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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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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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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1337 Words | 6 Pages

It is widely known that a lack of communication within a relationship almost always puts a detrimental strain on it. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, the narrative revolves around an unspoken conflict between a woman named Jig and her significant other, referred to as the American man. In the story, Jig and the American man are travelling in Spain. At a train station, they are talking about an “operation” (Hemingway 476) Jig is to have; one can infer they are talking about an abortion.

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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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893 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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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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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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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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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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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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1044 Words | 5 Pages

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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492 Words | 2 Pages

Everyone has challenges that can affect their life and aspirations. I find that it is how one internalizes those challenges, how one pushes through those challenges, and how one learns and grows from those challenges that allows one to overcome those challenges so they do not impede personal growth. While I have had a lot of challenges, one challenge was my distaste for writing. The rules were fluid and the answer was not set which confused me when I was younger. This pushed me to focus more on math, as I enjoyed its fixed rules and formulas.

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