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Hills Like White Elephants Analysis

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Black or White Hills: The Resolution of Hills Like White Elephants Hemingway is known as a master of the Iceberg Theory, which his short story Hills like White Elephants is a prime example of. The short story feels a lot like a fragment of a longer story – beginning and end are left up to the reader’s imagination and the story is mainly based around a single topic: the fate of their unborn child. It is a story about a couple in Spain waiting for a train. They have a couple of drinks and attempt to decide whether to go through with an abortion or not. At the end of the story, the reader is left with two main questions: will the girl go through with the abortion and will the couple remain together? The American and Jig are fundamentally incompatible. At the basis of this conclusion lies their lack of communication, or rather, their personal styles of speaking which are so different that communication becomes near impossible. Every attempt either of them makes at leading a pleasant conversation is either ignored or swept aside with a comment about a different subject. A prime example of this is the moment when Jig explains her comment about the hills being like white elephants and the man only responds with the question, “Should we have another drink?”. The American is very blunt, wants to get straight to the point, whereas Jig chooses to linger more on her surroundings and taking the time to gather her thoughts; she is also more emotional, whereas the American is rational – or
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Hemingway's Symbolism In Hills Like White Elephants

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Hemingway’s symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway among the best of authors of his time, uses a quite different approach to his writings. His style to of writing is often vague and unclear. Hemmingway only gives a bit of content about the story, and the rest is hidden or missing entirely. The audiences are therefore forced to read more carefully and piece together the story. The style of writing he uses is known as the iceberg theory.

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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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Good People And Hills Like White Elephants: A Comparative Analysis

970 Words | 4 Pages

Comparison/Contrast Essay 1 “Good People” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are stories that portray young couples facing an unwanted pregnancy and the decision of whether to terminate the pregnancy or keep the child. Jig in “Hills Like White Elephants”, is headstrong and knows what she wants to do about the pregnancy, will have the baby and the American will likely stay with Jig. Despite the decision she make concerning the pregnancy, his feelings of affection are genuine for her and the child. In the story “Good People” Sheri will likely terminate the pregnancy despite her religious convictions.

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Theme Of Abortion In Hemingway's 'Hills Like White Elephants'

1321 Words | 6 Pages

Manipulation on Jig’s part occurs when she says “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.” To which the American man responds by saying “I don’t want you to do it if you feel that way.” Jig uses this statement to manipulate the American man who clearly cares about whether she would actually like to have the abortion. She clearly cares about herself, her happiness, and desires and uses them as major deciding factors.

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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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Hills Like White Elephant Literary Analysis

746 Words | 3 Pages

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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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Summary Of Hills Like White Elephants

753 Words | 4 Pages

(Baccellia, 2007) The second story is about a woman named Jig and a nameless American man waiting in Barcelona for a train trip to Madrid. Assuming that the man involved in this story is Jig 's boyfriend or husband due to their interactions with one another, the two discussed the possibility of abortion, which leads to Jig describing the two hills she sees while waiting for the train as white elephants. The meaning of the hills looking like white elephants is that Jig is debating if the abortion procedure is the best decision. Almost like she has something precious that she has to get rid of.

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Hills Like White Elephants Literary Criticism

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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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Hills Like White Elephants

1349 Words | 6 Pages

The girl is looking out on this landscape after her and the American had discussed the abortion. The American had just said getting an abortion is the best thing to do and the girl has come to the conclusion that she does not care about herself, but just the American. This means at this moment she is thinking about having the abortion. Looking at the landscape the girl is thinking of all their lives would be missing if she has the abortion. She asks the American, “And we could have all this,” she said, “And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible,” (Hemmingway 477).

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Symbolism In Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

1128 Words | 5 Pages

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

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797 Words | 4 Pages

If we observe their relationship, it seems like it is not going too well either. With attention to Jig’s view and the man’s view we can say that they both have a different attitude towards the abortion and their relationship. Remarkably, the girl’s thoughts change through their conversation. Renner divides the stages of the decision-making process into four – what he calls – ‘movements’. (28)

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Hills Like White Elephants Character Analysis

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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Summary Of Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

184 Words | 1 Pages

In this excerpt of Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway establishes an attitude of detachment in a young girl named Jig. She travels with an American man on a train through the Ebro River valley in Spain, having a terse discussion. The man, the father of Jig’s child, tries to persuade her into getting an abortion, but his words roll off her shoulders she gazes at the white hills in the distance. Jig’s aloofness is conveyed through her lack of interest in conversing with the man.

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