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Hills Like White Elephants Rhetorical Analysis

739 Words3 Pages

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. Hemingway sets the story environment at a train station, with two very different sides of the tracks. This setting is interpreted as a metaphor for the choice at hand, an interpretation of life or death. One side reflecting a dry harsh area, with no trees, and devoid of life, on the other side of the …show more content…

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). The decision is not an easy one to make, and it’s clear that she is struggling with what to do for herself and their

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Examples Of Ambiguity In Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway

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

1321 Words | 6 Pages

When first reading “Hills Like White Elephants,” the miscommunication and unintentional manipulation between characters, (an American man and a young woman who we can assume to be in a brief relationship with each other), may not be initially clear to the reader. The reader may first find the American man in the story to be harsh, controlling, and manipulative. However, after a closer second read one comes to realize that these assumptions about his character have come from simple miscommunication between characters. Hemingway refers to the female in the story specifically as a girl, not a woman, so we can infer that there is an age difference between the two characters which is also a contributing factor. As well, it becomes clear that the

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Hills Like White Elephants Essay

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The story of the Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is about an American man and a young girl. They were waiting at a train station in Barcelona, drinking together. While they were waiting on the train to go to Madrid they had a conversation about something. Although the dialogue didn’t directly say what they were discussing, certain clues were given that pieced everything together about the conversation they were having. The interactions between the two have something to do with the fact that they had a physical encounter.

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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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1481 Words | 6 Pages

Even though it is not said directly, it is still easy for the audience to understand that what Jig and her boyfriend are talking about is a woman’s matter. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway does not reveal the underlying meaning, but rather uses symbolism in his story through Jig’s attitude towards her boyfriend, the station in which the couple is at, and the absinthe drink she tries. Jig has an attitude about her that makes seem childish. She repeats her words as if she were a young child would when they want something they cannot have.

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Hills Like White Elephants Dialogue Analysis

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Ernest Hemingway uses dialogue, symbolism, and setting in “Hills Like White Elephants” to convey his theme, which is the difference between talking and communicating. The story starts at a train station planted in the middle of a desolate valley. The two characters in the story is a guy known as the American and a female known as the girl. The two couple face a difficult situation on how to deal with an unplanned pregnancy. The two characters just talk, but they do not take the time to understand and listen to each other.

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Abortion In The Story 'Hills Like White Elephants'

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In the story “Hills like White Elephants” a girl is forced to make a choice of whether to get an abortion or not. I believe that the girl didn't get an abortion because for the entire story the man says how easy it is and tries to make it sound not painful but in her heart she believes that she should keep it. In the story she is a young girl with a lot of innocence still with an older man. She wants to keep the baby but the man makes a point by saying that as soon as she gives birth to it that there will be no more adventure, and no more him. She doesn't have a lot of time to decide.

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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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In the short story, Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway the main character Jig pursued to make a decisive change in her life by making the right decision, whether to have an abortion or not, but she is unable to think clear because of her weak characteristic. Jig is undecided about what decision she should make. Even though she knows the possibilities, she has trouble letting go her old life style. Another important fact is that she suffers from low self-esteem that leads to her being submissive to the men manipulations, that makes her fragile which makes her hide her feelings behind her sarcastic comments.

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“Hills Like White Elephants,” written by Ernest Hemingway is a story that must be read between the lines to understand. I had to read this story a few times before truly understanding the meaning. One thing that I noticed about this story that made it very unique was point of views of each characters. As a reader, I could understand that both characters had their different point of views, yet neither of them took the time to understand each others. The things these two characters are not openly discussing is abortion.

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786 Words | 4 Pages

During the course of the story “Hills Like White Elephants” the author Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism to describe the the main idea of the girl having the “operation.” Hemingway uses the landscape, the white elephant, and the term “elephant in the room” to represent different aspects of the pregnancy and abortion. The landscape in the story represents choosing the abortion or choosing to keep the baby. The setting of the story is at a train station.

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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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Hills Like White Elephants Moral Analysis

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Throughout the story, they discuss an “operation.” Hemingway never lets the reader know what kind of

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