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Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway: An Analysis

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Love is for those couples who support each other during bad and good moments, but love does not mean to be lead to tragedies. "Hills like White Elephants" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway and published in 1927. Ernest Hemingway, the author, was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899 and he "started his career as a writer at the age of seventeen" (Nobel). In 1962 Hemingway committed suicide at Idaho and most people believed it was due to an obscure side he had apart from the public. Hemingway wrote several books including "A Farewell to Arms" "one of the most pregnant opening paragraphs" from his writings (Nobel).In this book he included information about the "Hills like White Elephants" where it talk about a communication between a couple who cannot make a decision. It might been a long time from when this story was published, but the message can be considered as support being sometimes strong or sometimes weak. In the story of " A Farewell to Arms" was written based on a past romance Hemingway had, but the relationship did not last. This relates to the couple of the story of "Hills like White …show more content…

In the life of Hemingway "oppressive sense of morality" was learned and this could have also affect the way he thought as he wrote down the short story. The moralities he had learned and the disappointments he had during his romances could have managed a way to write "Hills like White Elephants" (SparkNotes). I understand that people might criticize the writer like Peter, but people actually express their life through writing. The writer committing suicide might have been expressed in one of his intense stories. A person might act normal but the people that surrounds them cannot actually see what goes inside the person's mind. I'm sure that apart from a negative communication he wrote in the short story, Hemingway might have also wrote positive stories or

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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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Hemingway created a false image of himself to be some kind of war hero, so in an attempt to “soothe his conscience”, he wrote about an unhappy soldier that just returned from war that was later turned into Krebs. ” The relative unhappiness of his personal life in 1924 was instrumental in causing

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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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F. Scott Fitzgerald was not only a writer but an alcoholic as well. He wrote his short story “Winter Dreams” while he was coming up with ideas for his novel The Great Gatsby. Both of these stories were written about new money versus old money, as well as kept the idea that humans want what they could have had. Ernest Hemingway wrote about these topics as well, putting his own life experiences into his writing. When he was hurt during WWI, he met a girl whom he planned to marry.

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While sitting with Fitzgerald and Dunc Chaplin, Hemingway becomes embarrassed as Scott begins to talk about his writing, “I was embarrassed by what he said — it was all about my writing and how great it was — I kept looking at him closely and noticed instead of listening” (Hemingway 126). As Hemingway observes Fitzgerald, the reader can infer that he is clearly uncomfortable with the praise he is receiving. Plimpton explains that Hemingway prefers not talk about writing, “Hemingway finds it difficult to talk about writing — not because he has few ideas on the subject, but rather because he feels so strongly that such ideas should remain unexpressed…” (Plimpton par. 11).

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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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Relationships are the core of everything we do in life. We love someone, so we do something for them; we value someone 's opinion, so we respect them; we dislike someone, so we avoid them. Relationships cause people to act on their emotions which impact how and why they do the things they do. Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” is about a couple trying to come to a conclusion on a delicate matter. While the man strongly promotes his opinion the girl is hesitant but wants to do whatever will make him happy.

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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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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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One main theme in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is the idea of disconnection. In this story, we eavesdrop on a conversation held between both characters. In their dialogue, conflict is created as the characters face what most readers believe to be the obstacle of unexpected pregnancy. This is assumed through symbolism and the titles meaning. The term “white elephant” was used for an unwanted gift.

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Ernest Hemingway’s story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, is about a wealthy couple who travels to Africa on a Safari. On their journey, they are escorted by a hunter named Robert Wilson, who acts as a foil character to Macomber, highlighting how he is not a real man.. Macomber has the opportunity to kill a lion, but he runs away. This makes his character stray away from the story’s idea of what a real man is. A real man in this story is portrayed as courageous, prideful, and he must also have a beautiful woman at his side.

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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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He was a fisherman, hunter, watched bullfights, and experienced both WW1 and WW2. He lived in different parts of the world and by gaining all of this experience, he was able to write many marvelous stories for people to enjoy. His style is still influential today for young writers. Ernest Hemingway had distinguished qualities in his writing by using dialogue and direct sentences with vivid verbs.

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Hemingway is one of my favorite writers because he handles circumstances like no other poetry can and does so without adding unnecessary fluff or fancy words. Hemingway is able to emphasize that simple writing is the best writing, especially when dealing with controversial subjects. Controversies are already fluffed up so people can’t make out what to and not to believe. Hemingway removes the fluff and adds the voice clearest to him, even if it may voice the unpopular side of an opinion. His words are blunt, but they are also effective.

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They begin discussing the old man’s attempt at suicide. The story which seems to start off about the old man really becomes about the fear the old waiter has of becoming like the old man. The importance of the characters, setting, and symbolism of the story all help Hemingway to express the hopelessness and loneliness of the old man and the older waiter. The story’s characters consist of the young waiter who is confident but seems to be a bit naïve about what life is really about.

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