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Hills Like White Elephants Title Analysis

747 Words3 Pages

Does someone continue to tiptoe around the unspeakable subject or come out and say it? An American man and a young woman, Jig, are at a crossroads in their lives. Like most people, they tiptoe around the difficult decision that they have to make. The decision that will change both of their lives forever. Because Ernest Hemingway left many things unsaid in the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” the reader has to look at the symbolism in the fiction to fully understand what is going on. Ernest Hemingway uses the hills in his short story to symbolize Jig’s pregnancy and to symbolize the strain in Jig and the American man’s relationship. The first reading of the title makes one assume the quite literal reference, that the comparison may merely be between the color and the rounded contour of the hills that compose part of the setting. This assumption is supplemented by the first sentence, the subject of which is the “long and white” hills (Hemingway 122). When the hills are compared to the countryside, which is brown and dry, it suggests the strain that is put on Jig and the American man’s …show more content…

Towards the middle of the story, the symbolic essence of the title and the reason for the recurring mention of the hills become apparent. The reader may experience a flood of emotion after the dialog makes clear that the girl wants the baby, not the abortion, while the American man wants her to go through with the abortion. Jig wants to experience the joy of being a mother while the brown, dry countryside describes her life on the road. It is apparent that Jig will do anything to make the American man happy in her plaintive appeal that, “it would be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?”(Hemingway 125). In the process of making the man happy, she will be losing her own

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Good People And Hills Like White Elephants: A Comparative Analysis

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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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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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Hills Like White Elephants Relationship Analysis

813 Words | 4 Pages

Nevertheless, Ernest Hemingway soon shows that this relationship contains a rift. This becomes apparent once they try conversing to one another. The girl attempts to spark a conversation by mentioning that the hills look like white elephants, but this topic soon turns hostile with the American’s replies. How this conversation is handled already shows that the couple “are trapped in a state of imbalance and disagreement” from the beginning (Link). The problem with the conversation is that the American’s personality of being simple and serious.

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Hills Like White Elephant Literary Analysis

746 Words | 3 Pages

They each bring up different points as to why throughout the story. In Earnest Hemingway’s short story Hills like White Elephants written in 1927 he uses the hills themselves, the scenery that the couple is surrounded by, and the beaded curtain as symbols to describe the situation that the couple faces. In this short story, the hills that the train station overlook are compared to white elephants. This is because the conversation Jig is wanting to have with the American consists of whether or not to keep the

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Hills Like White Elephants Jig Character Analysis

699 Words | 3 Pages

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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Character Analysis Of Jig In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

1481 Words | 6 Pages

(Hemingway 475). When Jig initially tells her thoughts on what the hills remind her of, she is indirectly telling her boyfriend what she is thinking. She, of course, would relate to the hills more than her boyfriend would because they remind her of a pregnant stomach. They boyfriend shows his self-centeredness by his reply. He does not think of the hills in the same way in which Jig does, all he sees are hills that look dry and bland, indirectly showing what he wants.

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The Theme Of Abortion In Hills Like White Elephants

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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

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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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1013 Words | 5 Pages

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 Elephants Literary Criticism

1098 Words | 5 Pages

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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Literary Analysis Of Hills Like White Elephants, By Ernest Hemingway

2016 Words | 9 Pages

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Hills Like White Elephants Point Of View Analysis

969 Words | 4 Pages

In the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway the central idea is people sometimes don't appreciate something special when it's in front them. This story can put in the category of Drama because at the end the reader is left with a open ending unlike other dramas that have a closing. The story is about a couple who is waiting for a train at a railroad junction in Spain they decide to have a beer then have a conversation of whether to go through the abortion of their child. Next, the bartender tells the couple that the train arrives in 5 minutes so the American moves their bags onto the other side of the train station and gets a drink at the bar while Jig sits by herself. The theme of the story is people sometimes don't appreciate what's in front of them and is shown through characterization, point of view and symbolism.

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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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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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