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Hills Like White Elephants Point Of View Analysis

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In the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway the central idea is people sometimes don't appreciate something special when it's in front them.This story can put in the category of Drama because at the end the reader is left with a open ending unlike other dramas that have a closing.The story is about a couple who is waiting for a train at a railroad junction in Spain they decide to have a beer then have a conversation of whether to go through the abortion of their child.Next, the bartender tells the couple that the train arrives in 5 minutes so the American moves their bags onto the other side of the train station and gets a drink at the bar while Jig sits by herself. The theme of the story is people sometimes don't appreciate what's in front of them and is shown through characterization, point of view and symbolism. One way …show more content…

Point of view is the way the narrator portrays the angles.An example of point of view is when Jig and the American are having drinks she says, "'They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees'" (221). The author shows us that he sees a deeper meaning than mountains and shows hints that the mountains are symbols.Another example of point of view would be when the author doesn't tell the readers the deep thoughts of the American and Jig when the American moves the bags from to the other side of the station and has a drink by himself. This tells us that his point of view is subjective by writing about each character equally by giving their thoughts about each other's choices and letting their actions speak louder than their words.Furthermore, this shows the theme of the not appreciating what's in front of you because the American already made up his decision by his actions to move the luggage to the train station meanwhile Jig sat by herself trying to make her decision of what to

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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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Of late, however, since he had reasons for observing her more closely, her silence had begun to trouble him”(26). The point of view relates to the telling of the story because it gives the reader an outside perspective of the events that are taking place. The narrator’s perspective is third person point of view. Since the narrator’s perspective is third person omniscient, it allows you to understand how each of the characters are feeling. For example, the narrator shows how the feelings between Ethan and Mattie develop over

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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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