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Hills Like White Elephants

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Hills like White Elephants, is a short story that was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1927. The stories main technique in giving information to the reader is using dialogue. There is a conversation between an American man and a girl who is with him. The two are at the crossroads waiting for a train at a railroad station between Barcelona and Madrid. They never specifically address what they are talking about, but they are debating about whether the woman should get a procedure or not and what will happen to their relationship and lives if she does or does not have the procedure. It can be deduced that the procedure the couple is talking about is an abortion. However in a story that uses mostly dialogue, this story also takes the time to describe …show more content…

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). This is the girls saying they could have a life with more meaning and more excitement, but every day they continue in their routine the more impossible it is to have that life. If they continue as things are and she has the abortion they will be stuck in their mundane lives. The girl is fascinated by this more exciting landscape and wanders towards it. The American quickly ushers her back to the table and away from the landscape because he does not want a life with a child. He wants things to stay the same. He is happy with the

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White elephants are rare animals and a small amount of people have ever seen a white elephant. The elephant symbolizes that the operation that the woman is going to get is an operation that not everyone gets, only the privileged people. She also makes statements about not caring about herself in attempt to get the American to change his mind about the operation. The American states that this pregnancy is what is causing turmoil in their relationship and causing the couple unhappiness.

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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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In the story, a girl named Jig and an unnamed American man are travelling in Spain. While waiting for a train, they have a few drinks, and the subject of “an operation” (476) comes up. This “operation” (476) is presumably an abortion, and the two characters have drastically different opinions on the matter. Jig wants to go through with the pregnancy, while her partner wants her to go through with the abortion. Eventually, Jig stops arguing, putting on a smile and telling the American man that she feels “fine” (478).

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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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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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One of the most notable facets of “Hills Like White Elephants” is the repetition of sentences throughout the short story. With the story running at barely two thousand words, the repetition of these key phrases stands out among the dialogue. The phrase from which the title comes from, “like white elephants”, reoccurs five times within the text. In cultural context, an elephant in the room is an idiom for a burden or an issue at hand that no one wants to discuss.

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Agony Between Fascinating Ridge Hills like white elephant is a short story that was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1924 with two main characters; an American man and Jig. It all happened in Ebro, Spain where both of them are in a train station waiting for the train that heads to Madrid. The location is described as bounded by alluring fields, wonderful trees, and magnificent hills. Although the story do not contain a background information about the characters, reading their dialogues and the whole story will give the interpretation that both of them were sharing a deep and sensual relationship. The whole idea is when the couple were enjoying the beer and the scenery, until the man consequently opened up about an operation.

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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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the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” She opens the crucial issue in an implicit way when she describes the “hills like white elephant”. Which suggests her imaginative way of thinking: she relates to the hills as the physical shape of her pregnancy, and the white elephants is “something she cannot just throw away but for which, in her present circumstances, she has no use; something that is awkwardly, burdensomely in the way” (Renner 30). The girl faces difficulties in expressing her feelings, but she does not surrender and keeps

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