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Hills Like White Elephants Rhetorical Analysis

681 Words3 Pages

Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” contains hidden, deeper meanings which are full of conscious and unconscious psychological processes. Hemingway represents in this piece, by explicating the text to explore the domineering ways of relationships, setting, imagery within the piece, and essentially abortion. In “Hills Like White Elephants” the American displays the manipulative and domineering side of relationships illuminating that the “couple” within neglect to realize the majestic gift; instead, they have childlike arguments about the “White Elephant” in the room. In “Hills Like White Elephants” the couple tends to use factors of manipulation to get what they both want. This not only affects their unborn child since neither of them ever really acknowledge the baby as a possibility. Even the girl, in acting like she is going to get the abortion because he wants her to, she never really talks about the child like she wants it, or mentions why a baby would …show more content…

They are two separate beings, that just like being together, But now they are starting to see what really make oneself happy. This helps aluminate on all the other forms of doubling. The use of doubling shows how Hemingway tries to convey there are 2 sides to every story, thus there are 2 different paths that one can choose from. Now since Jig and the baby is coming as a pair. It used to be that the American and Jig were the pair, but now that the American does not want the baby he and she must decide if they want to add another life into their pair or go their separate ways. At the end of “Hills Like White Elephants” it states, “He looked up the tracks but could not see the train”(Hemingway 478). This is interpreted that when the American looked up the tracks he could not see any future with Jig, since she wants a separate life since she wants to settle down and have a “real” relationship instead of just “try new

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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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1814 Words | 8 Pages

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Hill Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

467 Words | 2 Pages

From the beginning of the of the story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway , he tells us about how an American man by the name of Jig and a girl at a crossroad waiting for a train to take the to Madrid. While waiting the girl compares the nearby hills to white elephants and the couple sit and talk about an operation that the man wants the girl to have, which is his way of saying abortion (Hemingway 274). The way that the man easily controlled the girl was a great way to use literary elements. The use of characterization,conflict, irony and symbolism help the reader figure out the meaning behind “Hill Like White Elephants” and exactly what's going on in the short story. The Characters in this short story are an American man

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Hills Like White Elephant Symbolism Essay

875 Words | 4 Pages

Symbols in the "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway The short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway features an American man and a girl by the name Jig. Two are sitting at a table and having an argumentative talk on whether the girl should opt for an abortion. The story has various themes and symbols which symbolizes various situations and portrays a particular message relating to the relationship between the two. The aim of the essay is to analyze the use of symbolism and explore the theme of the short story.

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1683 Words | 7 Pages

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Abortion In Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway

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Many authors love stirring up controversy in their works. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway touches upon the issue of abortion in a 1920s setting. By using his famous Iceberg Theory, Hemingway creates an indirect argument between an American and a girl that gets buried underneath many literary techniques. Hemingway uses setting, diction, and symbolism to describe the argument between the couple and to develop it.

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Male Dominance In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

1034 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout literature, author’s use of items to represent a bigger picture help the reader grasp the broader idea the author is inferring. In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, a young girl (named Jig) and a man (whose name is not given) wait for a train at a station in Spain, drinking, and observing the view. They talk back and forth on whether or not Jig will get an abortion. At the end, the man has vexed her so much about the abortion that she tells him to stop talking. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” certainly refutes the idea of male dominance and conveys the potential destructiveness of absinthe; however, Hemingway most effectively presents symbolism throughout the whole story.

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The Dialogue In Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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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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1269 Words | 6 Pages

In Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” the reader is forced to dive into the story to find their own interpretation of the story. Hemingway seems to tell multiple stories by giving most of the dialogue and details he adds extra meaning. The story begins with a man and woman talking in a train station about an operation the woman is going to be getting, and with context clues, we come to understand this operation to be an abortion. One possible interpretation of a theme in this story could be the burial of feelings in order to make people happy. The reasons for this are because the girl tries to lighten the mood at first by starting a conversation, then tries to please the man by claiming she is doing the operation for him,

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The Hidden Meaning Of Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway

431 Words | 2 Pages

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Hills Like White Elephants Modernism Analysis

177 Words | 1 Pages

Written during the period of Modernism and published in 1927, Ernest Hemingway’s work, “Hills like White Elephants,” is a short story about a conversation between an American man and a young girl, Jig, while drinking beer at a railway station in Spain. Modernism was the vague term to describe the literary shift which marked a strong and intentional break with tradition in areas—arts, religion, science, politics, and social conventions. The author keeps the major conflict in the story ambiguous by giving very little context and interpretation. Hemingway writes this piece of realistic fiction which conveys a story through images imbued with meaning rather than explanations and words. Using Modernism, along with Imagism and Objectivism, “Hills

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513 Words | 3 Pages

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Hills Like White Elephant Symbolism Essay

861 Words | 4 Pages

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1232 Words | 5 Pages

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1898 Words | 8 Pages

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