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Essay On Hills Like White Elephants

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Hills like White Elephants Most all Ernest Hemingway’s stories are similar to his life experiences. While writing “Hills like White Elephants”, Hemingway found out that his wife Hadley was pregnant with his second child. During this time, Heming was still having an affair with a lady name Pauline. In the short story “Hills like White Elephants” there is an American and a girl whose name is “Jig”. In this story it a way of showing his true feelings about Hadley’s pregnancy? Authors sometimes are telling stories in writing to rely their true feeling or to get across a point. Life normally is the deciding factor on which an author will write about. In “Hills like White Elephants”, the American boy is selfish and doesn’t consider Jigs feeling about …show more content…

Being there married four times, Hemingway possibly experienced communication issues with his wives. This is why the relationship between Jig and the American has trouble understanding. The American seems to really be influential in trying to convince her to have the operation. The America suggests “if you don’t want to you don’t have to,” his purpose was to try to get her to say she wants the abortion. An abortion seems to be a difficult experience to go through and a women will need the support of her partner in crime for making her pregnant. It is clear that the American wants the abortion so that he and Jig can continue their lives as before. Their travels would now be altered because of the possibility of a child now being a part of their lives. This would hinder their adventures of aims self-gratification, “That’s all we do, isn’t it - look at things together and try new drinks.” In any type of relationship, communication is the key factor. If you have no communication then you have no relationship, just say what you feel and mean what you say. Most time people should just say how they feel so that there is no assumption like there is between Jig and the

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The novel Across a Hundred Mountains is told from the eyes of a young Mexican girl named Juana. Juana learns the value of a family after her family is broken. Her family is described as poor but unified. Her family is also observed to be loyal, virtuous and of good ethic which we see in a few of Juana’s actions.

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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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Lane Jr. who's struggling with his faith will support and stand by Sheri and her decision concerning the pregnancy. Ernest Hemingway's" Hills Like White Elephants” allows his readers to come to the conclusion as to whether the couple in question will terminate or keep the unborn child. As Jig, and the American are

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So he sketched out a scene titled "Hills Like White Elephants." Throughout the story, the American behaves according to Hemingway’s rigid conception of masculinity. Hemingway portrays the American as a rugged man’s man—knowledgeable, worldly, and always in control of himself and the situation at hand. Even when vexed or confused, he maintains his cool and feigns indifference, such as when he tells the girl he doesn’t care whether she has the operation. He initially avoids discussion of their problems, but when pressured, he tackles them head on by oversimplifying the operation and relentlessly pushing her to have it.

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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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746 Words | 3 Pages

They each bring up different points as to why throughout the story. In Earnest Hemingway’s short story Hills like White Elephants written in 1927 he uses the hills themselves, the scenery that the couple is surrounded by, and the beaded curtain as symbols to describe the situation that the couple faces. In this short story, the hills that the train station overlook are compared to white elephants. This is because the conversation Jig is wanting to have with the American consists of whether or not to keep the

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It is clear that the American man wants Jig to have the abortion, while Jig does not. Neither of them communicate clearly throughout the story, instead they are passive aggressive, saying things like “I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want

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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 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” 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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If analyzed in a more generic view, the short story can be used to show how a male and female stereotypically understand a subject. The American speaks more literal and materialistic as Jig is seen to speak in a more figurative and abstract manner. Ernest Hemingway’s use of symbolism gives the reader a more visual effect to the conflict between the man and the girl as well as the idea of their inner thoughts. The white rounded hills, the beads on the curtain hanging from the bar’s doorframe, and the cool shade and blazing light all represent different aspects of the two choices that the American and the girl have to decide on, just like the railroad tracks on either side of the

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They begin to not understand what it is that they both want to do. During that part of the conversation it is very clear that the American man wants the girl to have this operation, which is an abortion “’I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to’” (Hemingway p.402). The man clearly wants to do what is in his best interest and not the girl’s and the life forming inside of

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496 Words | 2 Pages

Therefore, the narration is only limited to what the characters say and do. By not showing the character’s motives, mind-set and attitudes, Hemingway’s allows the reader to interpret this for themselves. The whole story is told as if you, the reader, is present at the scene and overhearing the couple’s conversation. Much of the story is told through the dialogue between Jig and The American, within the dialogue the couple discusses whether to have the operation or not: “"It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said. "It's not really an operation at all."”

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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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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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