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Hills Like White Elephants Identity Analysis

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A Struggle with Identity “Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story in which Ernest Hemingway, the author, uses stylistic ways in presenting the story. The setting takes place in a Spanish railway station. Jig, Hemingway’s main character, and the American man, exchange frustration and confusion because of a simple operation the American man wants Jig to go through (Hemingway, 887). After a series of arguments and reasoning, at the end of the story, Jigs explained that she felt fine, suggesting that she was fine all along. The struggle with identity that the two face is the new identity of becoming a parent, and accepting to be one. In the late 1920’s, when Hemingway wrote this story, there was a mark of disgrace attached to having children outside of the state of being married. The story of “Hills Like White Elephants” was Hemingway’s stylistic way of bringing us back to that era. For the most part, the story was written in third person. Hemingway’s stylistic choices allow the readers to wonder what the story is really trying to portray because of the fact that it leaves the readers wondering. There are not enough details and dialogue to present what Hemingway wants us to understand. For instance, Jig focuses on her emotions, but keeps them to herself, rather than focusing on facts and other objects (Smiley, 3). Therefore, the …show more content…

However, her pregnancy is not something that is stated directly. Instead, Hemingway used a series of symbols that will help the readers get into the understanding that it is in fact, a pregnancy, and the ‘simple operation’ that the man wanted her to get is an abortion. As readers, we also observe that the man and Jig go through an exchange of peace and quarrel (L’Heureux, 2011), however, we also noticed that Jig has a desire to please and impress the man

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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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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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The settings authors use for their stories play an important part in short stories by allowing the authors to express various moods, give insights into the thoughts of their characters, and use symbolism through contrasts in the settings. This essay will look at how the settings of "Hills Like White Elephants" and "Sonny's Blues" were used to reflect the characters' conflicts and emotions while also adding atmosphere and depth to the stories. The short story "Hills Like White Elephants," written by Ernest Hemingway, explores the complexities of human connections. This story follows a couple, Jig and "the American," as they face a major life decision: whether or not to have an abortion, which they refer to as an "operation" (Hemingway 701).

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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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In Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants”, the American and Jig are like parallel lines, they can never meet. As they struggle to find common ground, the very discussion that can bring them together only tears them apart. The relationship between Jig and the American is complex from the very beginning since their personalities, methods of communicating, and desires are different. The American represents infertility, selfishness and death but how can he not be when he’s a single man, traveling, trying new drinks, spending nights in hotels with no worry about money and now he has impregnated a women, of course he will lose his zest for her (Hannum).

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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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